09-11-2012

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The two skimmer thieves, Ancho Stenkov, left, and Tervel Dimitrov cover their faces at the press conference on Monday.

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Two Bulgarian men arrested as they retrieve sophisticated ‘skimming’ equipment they had installed in a Karon ATM FULL STORY ON PAGE 2

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Phony cop’s big score

Con artist caught after extracting B1.5m from credulous local victim > 5

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Skimmers caught Megaparty

TWO BULGARIAN MEN were arrested on Sunday night (November 4) when they went to retrieve sophisticated “skimming” equipment they had installed in an ATM. Skimming is a constant problem in Phuket. The thieves install equipment that takes details of ATM cards inserted in a machine, along with the PIN number. They then make copies of the cards and use them to steal cash from victims’ accounts.

The equipment installed by the Bulgarians was detected by a member of the staff at the Kasikornbank branch on Patak Rd in Karon, whose responsibility it was to load the machine with cash. He noticed “something wrong” and police were called.

They staked out the machine and at 8pm saw the two men arrive to detach the skimmer. The two, Tervel Dimitrov, 31, and Ancho Stenkov, 33, were promptly arrested.

Police held a press con-

details ‘still too vague’ Tanyaluk Sakoot reporter4@thephuketnews.com

The two main parts of the skimmer: the fake keyboard (item 8), and the phony card slot (item 4). ference on Monday morning at which the two with their equipment were displayed to journalists.

ATM users are advised to check any machine before they use it. If the keypad is raised above the surface of the desk at the ATM, it may be that thieves have installed a keypad over the existing one.

Users are also advised to

use only newer ATMs with a green plastic tab protruding from machine next to the slot.

The tab makes it much more difficult for a skimmer to be installed.

Anyone suspecting that a skimmer has been installed on a machine is advised to contact bank staff. In addition, it is wise to change one’s PIN number frequently.

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onfusion remains over the finer details of the Paris Hilton-announced New Year’s party on Surin Beach, with organisers yet to be granted permission for the floating offshore stage.

On Tuesday (November 6) Phuket Governor Maitree Intusut, Cherng Talay OrBorTor officials, the Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket Office Chanchai Doungjit and hotel representatives met with party organisers Sydictive Element.

As reported in last week’s Phuket News, the meeting follows concerns from Surin hotel representatives regarding the date and venue of the festive bash – they want the event to be moved to a different date and a different beach because they fear it will upset their customers and make them lose business.

They, along with local food and drink vendors, have expressed concern about a lack

of detailed plans for the event.

Gov Maitree and Mr Chanchai have already given their blessing to the event.

D u r i ng t he meet i ng, Phuriphat Kulpisut, Director of the 5th Marine Department said the floating stage required permission from the Marine Department, but he had yet to see any application for this.

Supacheep Wanchai, a representative from Sydictive Element, said the event would not be non-stop over two days as many had previously thought, and that noise levels would be restricted to 100 decibels.

“We will have 2,000 security guards along the beach, and will have a plan that is up to international standards to clean up the beach and organise and control the amenities.”

Somjai Tungkoo, Twinpalms Group Executive Manager, said that several bookings had already been cancelled since the announcement of the event, resulting in a loss of about B1 million for the hotel.

Sydictive Element earlier

said they planned on buying room nights at hotels to make up for the loss of any business, but no formal agreement has been made regarding this.

After the first meeting, Sydictive representatives met again in the afternoon with hotel representatives – this time including local food and drink vendors.

“We think the concert is a good opportunity for us but we need to talk more. The plans are not clear to us – we want [Sydictive] to make it clear,” one restaurant owner said.

There was vague discussion about setting up a food court-type area, something local vendors were not happy with, wanting instead to keep their own restaurants open as they did every year.

Mr Supacheep responded that local food vendors would have “huge benefit” from this event.

Gov Maitree gave Sydictive Element two or three days to return again with more detailed plans for the event that address local concerns.

The bus lies on its side after it smashed into a wall in Phang Nga. Photo: Siang Tai

Tourists hurt in bus smash AROUND 11 TOURISTS WERE INJURED when a bus suffered a tyre blowout, toppled over and smashed into a concrete wall in Phang Nga on Sunday (November 4).

On board were 18 tourists – 11 Australians, two Americans, four South Africans and one Japanese – 11 of whom suffered minor injuries. Several went to local hospitals but all were released after treatment.

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Pol Maj Bandasak Srilerk, an investigator from the Kokkloy Police Station said the accident happened when the back left tyre suffered a blow-out, and the bus went out of control. “The bus slid and smashed into a concrete wall,” he said.

The tourists were en route from the Ao Nang Cliff Beach Resort to the Sawasdee Hotel in Patong.

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Cars hit by hurled concrete blocks Nattha Thepbamrung reporter2@thephuketnews.com

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otorbike gang members tossed concrete paving blocks and hit two cars coming the other way on Saturday (November 3), damaging the windscreens of both. Luckily, no one was hurt.

Jiradech “Dech” Sae-Ong went to police after his red Honda Civic was hit in the windscreen and back door by two blocks, as he drove through the Talad Neua district of Phuket Town on his way to dinner with a friend.

A third of the potentially deadly missiles missed Mr Dech’s car and hit another, a Honda City, whose owner also

reported the incident to police.

Police officers led by Pol Capt Wirat Tanthong found three of the cement blocks in the road where the attack happened.

Unfortunately, they also discovered there are no CCTV cameras in that area.

Mr Dech said he wants the attack on him to be regarded as a “case study” and wants all departments to understand the importance of CCTV coverage.

“If there was worse damage, it could cause serious injuries or even death,” he said.

“And if the gangsters threw one of these blocks into a restaurant full of people, or at a tourist, what would happen?”

In the past few years there

have been a number of similar attacks in different parts of Thailand, including Trad, Ubon Ratchathani, Prae, Chiang Rai, Kampaengpetch, Bangkok and especially Ayutthaya. Gangs have also attacked trucks and trains.

Some cases resulted in deaths, including that of wellknown comedian Somchai “Jo” Janjua, killed in 2004 when a large stone was flung through the windscreen of the minibus in which he was a passenger.

Five people were arrested.

The Phuket News understands that this is not the first such attack in Phuket in recent months. The gang concerned apparently targets modified cars like Mr Dech’s.

Jiradech ‘Dech’ Sae-Ong and his damaged car. Photo: Phuket Andaman News

Phuket hotel wall collapses on neighbourhood Jody Houton editor3@thephuketnews.com

A H UGE BOU N DA RY wall at the Senses Beach Resort on Nanai Rd, Patong, collapsed on Saturday morning (November 3), with bricks, concrete, scaffolding and other building equipment falling onto houses below.

Nanai Rd resident Joe Delaney was woken by screams from the neighbourhood.

“I ran out into the street and heard lots of commotion with people shouting and screaming, then I noticed that one of the walls from the big hotel (Senses Beach Resort) on the hill had collapsed.”

The collapse of the wall completely destroyed one house occupied by 28-year-old single mother Autchara Jutisane and her three-month-old son, ‘Big’.

Luckily no one was hurt.

A representative from the Senses Beach Resort said, “There was heavy rainfall on Friday night, combined with

the breakage of water pipe lines underground, this caused excessive moisture in the soil.”

After a site inspection on Sunday (November 4), recently appointed Phuket Governor Maitree Intusut called for all relevant departments to strictly enforce planning and construction standards.

He added, “I am still worried about the main structure of the hotel,” but said that he had not declared the area a disaster zone as he had not yet thoroughly investigated it.

Gov Maitree said that that this case should make everybody concerned about the standard of construction on the island. To ensure these standards are upheld, he plans to set up a conference with the relevant departments at both local government level and with the Public Works and Planning Department.

Gov Maitree said that ensuring building regulations are followed is a big issue that affects the whole area

Autchara Jutisane’s home, destroyed in the collapse, lies half-buried in mud. as well as tourism, and urged all departments to control the quality by adhering to building standards mandated by law.

The Senses Beach Resort has already agreed to cover the costs to repair Mrs Autchara’s house and to pay for any other damage caused to the village below. The resort is currently

under construction and as a result of the accident the soft opening has been postponed with the ‘exact date to be confirmed.’ On its website, the location of the ‘luxury property’ is described as being, “Nestled on the lush forested hillside of Patong, Phuket’s most thrilling holiday resort.”

Briton dies in suicide leap A 64-YEAR-OLD BRITON jumped to his death from the Phuket Tourist Police Headquarters’ Radio Broadcast Tower in Phuket Town last Friday morning (November 2) morning at 7.15.

Pol Capt Urumporn Koon­ dej­sumrit of the Tourist Police, said “The man had received consular assistance and, not having the money to pay for his hotel in Patong had been staying in one of the rooms at the Tourist Police Headquarters.”

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huket Police took just two days to track down and arrest the man who robbed a branch of the Kasikornbank at gunpoint on October 31, and to recover B2.5 million of the B2.7 million stolen.

On Saturday (November 3) they staged a press conference at which they displayed robber Anusit “Aow” Keawmukda, 28, who admitted to the robbery.

Officers said they believe that Anusit is a career criminal, blaming him for robbing a gold shop in Bangkok five years ago and another Phuket branch of Kasikornbank in January this year, getting away with almost B700,000 on that occasion.

Anusit, who also goes by the name “Thawesak”, was arrested at his ex-girlfriend’s apartment behind Surakul Stadium in Phuket Town last Friday, following his dramatic gunpoint hold-up at the Kasikornbank last Wednesday.

At the press conference, Anusit admitted robbing the Sapam branch of Kasikornbank, and said he chose the branch, on Thepkrassattri Rd, as a target because it was the only bank that did not have a security guard.

“Every bank should have a security guard, because then

Anusit Kaewmukda re-enacts his January robbery of the Kasikornbank branch on Chao Fa East Rd, near Chalong. He escaped with almost B700,000 on that occasion. robbers will not be able to take money,” he said.

As for the gun he used to threaten staff with, he said, “I am not a bad man, I have never shot anyone and I would not have shot her [the staff member he pointed the gun at].”

He added that he only needed B20,000 to pay off debts, but that bank staff had handed over far more than he was expecting.

After he fled the scene, Anusit said he dropped B2.5 million in a clothes heap at his wife’s house, opposite the Shell gas station on Thepkrassatri Rd, and hid a gun under the

dressing table. This was the money recovered by police.

By Monday, Anusit had also confessed to the January 29 robbery of the Kasikornbank branch at Tesco Lotus on Chao Fa East Rd, in which he netted B900,000.

On Monday police took him to that branch to re-enact the robbery. Watched by officers led by Pol Lt Col Yongyuth Krongmalai, Pol Lt Col Niwit Eng-Chuan and Pol Lt Col Wiwat Chamnankij, he first sat astride his parked motorbike, sizing up the situation.

He then put on his full-face helmet, walked into the bank

and straight up to a teller, pointed his gun at her and told her to put money in the bag, just as he did during last Wednesday’s robbery. After grabbing the bag he then ran back to his motorcycle.

After the re-enactment, police took Anusit back to the police station for further questioning before putting him back behind bars.

Pol Lt Col Sian Kaewthong, heading up the investigation, said that it is almost complete and that police will soon hand the case over to the Public Prosecutor’s office in readiness for Anusit’s trial.

Protestors block new Phuket Red Shirt Village attempt Nattha Thepbamrung reporter2@thephuketnews.com

TWO GROUPS OF LOCAL people calling themselves the “Phuket Urban Anti-Red” and the “Phuket Model Banish Red Shirt Village” gathered at the Queen Sirikit Park on Thalang Rd in Phuket Town on Sunday morning (November 4) to protest against another attempt to establish a Red Shirt Village on the island.

Protests in May this year blocked a previous attempt to establish a Red Shirt Village in Phuket but the radical Red Shirts, linked to exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, continue to attempt to set up villages in every province of Thailand to prove the veracity of their slogan that “the whole of Thailand is Red”.

In provinces in Isarn and the North, where the Red Shirts (or to give them their official name, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship)

Local protestors set fire to photographs of leaders of the Red Shirt Village movement. have strong support, Red Shirt Villages have been established by the simple expedient of villagers deciding to declare their village red, hanging out red flags and erecting signs.

However, in the south, which generally supports the opposition Democrat Party, they have had little success so far.

Led by former Labour Min-

ister Dr Prasong Buranapong, they did declare a Red Shirt Village in Trang province on November 1.

Yesterday’s protestors, numbering about 20, burned pictures of Red Shirt Village movement leaders, a coffin and a mock Red Shirt Village sign.

One of the Red Shirt village movement’s leaders, Anon Sannan, told The Phuket News,

“We want to show the Amart people [the old and still powerful Thai élite] that there are Red Shirt people all around the country, in every province.

“We now have about 16,000 Red Shirt villages. We were planning to come to Phuket but we heard about the protest and decided to go to Songkhla instead.

“The Phuket protesters are not real Yellow Shirts – they are “third hand” – they are just doing it to annoy us,” he added.

A local leader of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, or Yellow Shirts, Saroj Dulayakong, one of the instigators of Sunday’s protest, said, “We cannot tolerate it when people intend to pull down the Thai flag and put up a red one, or pull down pictures of HM the King and replace them with pictures of Thaksin.”

He said that if the Red Shirts want to establish a village in Phuket they should hold a public hearing first.

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Dugong dies after being hit by propeller A FEMALE DUGONG, INjured by a boat propeller, was rescued from Cape Yamu on Tuesday (November 6) but died the following morning from its injuries.

The dugong, also known as a sea cow, was first spotted in difficulty by villagers on Saturday and was finally found by the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) on Tuesday after a long search.

The PMBC staff found the animal seriously injured, with seven severe wounds to its head and skull. They monitored the animal in the water, then later the same day decided to take it into the centre when its condition worsened.

On Wednesday morning vets at the centre confirmed the mammal’s death.

Kongkiat Kittiwattanawong, the PMBC Marine Endangered Species Unit department chief, said, “the dugong weighed 388 kilogrammes and was 2.7 metres long, which is very big. It

was more than 40-years-old and we believe it had given birth to many babies in the past.”

Mr Kongkiat said the number of dugongs in the Andaman Sea was dropping rapidly. In the past 17 years, PMBC statistics show 341 dugong have died – nine of them this year including the one that died today.

The last survey of dugong numbers in 2011 showed there were around 135-145 living in waters off Trang, between six and 15 off Krabi, and around 15 in Phuket and Phang Nga Bay. There are three main causes of dugong deaths: being trapped in fishing nets which means they are unable to come to the surface to breathe, being killed by boat propellers, or being caught by fisherman who want to sell their teeth as talismans.

Dugongs are listed by the IUCN as being at risk of extinction.

PHUKET NEWS

5

PHONY COP

Scam artist nets B1.5m from Phuket victim

Nattha Thepbamrung reporter2@thephuketnews.com

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hawwarote Jangjob, 44, was arrested on Monday (November 5) for scamming a local man out of B1.5 million by posing as a representative of Phuket’s new Police Chief, Maj Gen Chote Chavalviwat.

His arrest came after Pairat Sae-Oui complained to Pol Lt Col Yongyuth Krongmalai of Phuket Town Police that Chawwarote had called him, claiming to represent the Police Chief and also dropping the name of Gen Chote’s boss, Commander of Police Region 8 Lt Gen Yongyuth Jaroenmanit.

Chawwarote – who never gave his name over the phone – demanded money that he said would be spent on banquets for powerful police officers.

He did this not just once, but 41 times, and – astonishingly – Mr Pairat transferred the money demanded each time into a Siam Commercial Bank account, for a grand total of B1.5 million, or an average of around B35,000 a time.

After his arrest, Chawwarote Jangjob promptly confessed to scamming Pairat Sae-Oui. The account was in the name of Pongsak Limseng who, Chawwarote told his victim, was his driver’s account.

On Monday, however, he called again, this time demanding payment of B8,500 in cash, which he said would be spent on a police welcome party at Laemhin Seafood

restaurant.

The two arranged to meet at 9:30 pm to hand over the cash at the Yang Sae-Iaw Clan Club on Poonphol Rd in Phuket Town. Mr Pairat called police who waited at the club and pounced on Chawwarote as soon as the cash was handed over to him.

Chawwarote confessed that

he had been passing himself off as Gen Chote’s representative for just one month. Mr Pai­r at was his sole victim, he said.

Police, however, believe that he may have scammed many local business people, and expect a flood of complaints once his face has been made public.

75-year-old hurt in crash with dog A 75-YEAR-OLD FOREIGN motorcyclist, Jean Marie Aug, was taken to Patong hospital after crashing into a dog on Nanai Rd, Patong, last Friday evening (November 2).

A rescue volunteer said that Mr Aug suffered three broken ribs and internal bleeding. After being treated at Patong Hospital he was moved to Vachira Phuket Hospital where he is now said to be recovering.

The condition of the dog was not recorded.

Rescue workers give Mr Aug first aid at the scene of the accident on Nanai Rd in Patong. Photo: Meelis Tomson

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Locals protest at hospital plan GENERAL MANAGER

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A

round 50 locals gathered at the Phuket Provincial Hall on November 1 to protest against the proposed new hospital on 10 rai of land just north of Chalong Circle.

They said that if the project goes ahead it will put their regular local market, currently on the same site, out of business.

The group met Phuket Governor Maitree Intusut to give him a letter outlining their concerns about the plans for the new Songserm Sukkaparp Chaleam Prakiet Nawamindra Rachinee Hospital in Chalong.

Samran Jindapol, the mayor of Chalong sub-district, proposed moving the market to a site next to the Phuket Country Home village, also in Chalong, where vendors would have to rent space from the owner.

This idea has little support with stallholders, who said that

74 stalls regularly set up in the daily market, and more than 200 others from time to time.

Around 500-600 customers visited the market on the day of the protest, they said.

“If the market is turned into a hospital, 3,000 to 5,000 local people around the area will be affected,” locals told Gov Maitree.

Two stallholders representing the group handed a letter to Gov Maitree and spoke with him. He then used a megaphone to greet the protesters, explaining, “There is no main hospital in the Chalong area.

If there is a serious accident, people will be in trouble.

“I don’t think the vendors have enough information about the plans.”

He said he understood how the locals felt, however, and promised to inspect the area.

The group seemed satisfied with the new governor’s speech and left without further ado.

Phuket Governor Maitree Intusut disarmed the protestors with sheer charm.

Proposal to make 50 ‘black’ taxis into limos Manager Online SALES REPRESENTATIVE Marine (Jiffy) Nuisin 088 765 5881

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SALES REPRESENTATIVE Jantiwa (Tangmo) Jantarattanawong 088 765 5883

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AS PART OF THE CURrent effort to legalise Phuket’s enormous fleet of unregistered taxis by early next year, it has been proposed that 50 vehicles be merged into the Phuket Mai Khao and Sahakorn Rot limousine associations working Phuket International Airport.

Under the proposal, the new members must each pay a monthly fee of B2,600.

The right to pick up airport fares has long been hotly contested among local taxi drivers. In 2000, a limousine driver died after being savagely beaten by a black taxi driver at

the airport. Meter taxis were allowed to pick up at the airport but were confined to the part of the car park furthest from the terminal, so that limousine drivers would get first pick of passengers.

Phuket Vice-Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada chaired a discussion on the issue last week in the Provincial Land Transport Office meeting room, where he was joined

by Land Transport Office chief Tirayoot Prasertpol and interested airport taxi drivers.

After the meeting, he said it had been held by way of consultation regarding how to deal with taxis operated by

the Mook Anda Co. “Mook Anda has more than 100 taxis [unmarked, with private car plates] serving tourists at Phuket Airport.

As a means of solving the problems associated with this group’s operations, Sahakorn Borikan Rot (Phuket Hired Car Business Co-operative) and the Phuket Mai Khao-Sakoo Co proposed conditions at the meeting, whereby 50 of Mook Anda’s vehicles would be merged with their organisations, each accepting 25 cars.”

Jamrern said the payments were aimed at “reducing the upset” of current members. He said Mook Anda drivers will

have to consider whether they want to abide by the conditions.

“However that may be, drivers must nonetheless comply with conditions laid out by the Provincial Office mandating that [unlicensed] ‘black plate’ taxis be legally registered.” Legally registered taxis are distinguished by green licence plates. It was not reported what accommodation, if any, is being considered for the remainder of Mook Anda’s drivers.

A deadline of November 1 was originally set for all of Phuket’s more than 2,880 black taxis to be properly registered.

That deadline, however, was

postponed almost immediately when it transpired that many black taxi drivers have car loans based on operation as private cars not as taxis.

The Provincial Office proposed that the affected drivers pay an increased charge to banks, which, in return, would re-write loans as for commercial vehicles.

Some banks, however, have refused to accept the proposed fee. Operators with such loans who register their vehicles as taxis may therefore be found to be in violation of loan terms and have their cars seized by the banks. No solution to the dilemma has been suggested.

Three held in ya ba, kratom raid SALES REPRESENTATIVE Kirsty Meyer 088 754 1371

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POLICE ARRESTED THREE Thais on Tuesday evening (November 6) on drugs charges.

Following up on information elicited during interrogation of teenage drug users, Pol Col Wanchai Palawan, Phuket Provincial Police Superintendent of Investigations led officers on a raid on worker shacks behind Supercheap in Phuket Town.

Phuket-born Jakkri “Mee” Srisatchatorn, 26, and Tara Klongdee, 36, were arrested after being found in posses-

sion of 244 bundles of fresh kratom leaves, a bag of dried kratom leaves, 408 pills of methamphetamine, five bottles of the drug cocktail known as 4x100, a pen gun and a bank book showing deposits totalling B22,000.

They told police they were not dealers; they were only couriers. Next door, police also arrested a Thai woman, Chantana Suebsot, 42, also from Phuket, on similar charges, which she denied, saying, “I

just take care of the house. I don’t know anything.”

Col Wanchai said, however, “We saw her throwing kratom away, so we will need to investigate more.

“Sixty bundles of fresh kratom leaves, 12 bottles of prescription cough syrup and a set of scales were found in her house,” Col Wanchai said.

Police also arrested three Burmese but declined to give any details of the three or the charges.

Chantana, Jakkri and Tara after their arrests.

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PHUKET NEWS

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Central Festival Phuket East opens THE GRAND OPENING WILL not be until December 15 but “Central Festival Phuket East” is now open for business.

In a B100-million revamp aimed at bringing some life to the 8,000 square metres of dead space on the ground floor of the Homeworks complex, on the other side of the bypass road from Central Festival, the company has opened a Tops Supermarket, a Power Buy Centre, and a food hall.

Homeworks continues to occupy the upper floor, along with a coffee shop.

General Manager Wilaiporn “Maew” Pitimana-aree said she hopes the revamp will attract retailers selling brand-name goods. She added that there is also a plan to expand parking to accommodate 1,000 cars.

Naughty monk, 70, defrocked A 70-YEAR-OLD MONK has attracted attention of the wrong kind after he found himself arrested after displaying his private parts to a 55-year-old woman.

Police in Phang Nga Town were notified at 5pm on Tuesday (October 30) of a Buddhist monk engaged in lewd behaviour – displaying his private parts to a woman while making obscene remarks.

The monk, who identified himself as Phra Chalad Yantipo, was invited to return to the house, where Rachinee Anusilanont, 55, confronted him. Mrs Rachinee insisted that Phra Chalad was the monk who engaged in the behaviour she complained of, and showed police CCTV footage to prove her assertion.

Police considered the footage convincing, so the monk was taken to Investigations Division duty officer Pol Capt Kanaen Somraks for questioning.

After questioning, Phra Chalad was taken to Phra Mahatanit Pasuko, abbot of Wat Taksinawat Pra Winaitara temple, to be stripped of his robe.

Pra Chalad, who is remarkably well-built and still hearty despite his age, fought all attempts to complete the de-frocking ceremony. “It took a number of police officers quite some time to wrestle him down and get him into layman’s clothes,” police noted.

After the de-frocking was complete, Chalad was taken to Phang-nga Meuang district station for booking.

Source: Siang Tai

General manager Wilaiporn Pitimana-aree (centre) with managers at the new Tops Market in Central Festival East.

Fire erupts in Tesco drink shop A

fire broke out during the early hours of Saturday (November 3) in a second-floor fruit smoothie shop at the Tesco Lotus Supercenter in Rassada district.

The cause was believed to be either an electrical short or an overheated water boiler.

Police in Phuket Town were notified of the incident at 2:15 am and raced to the scene, in tandem with two fire-engines from Rassada Municipality. They found the shopping centre “filled with billowing smoke from a second-floor shop selling fruit smoothies”, police said.

“Shopping centre personnel were already working to douse the flames. The overhead sprinklers were also operating against the fire’s spread, and, as a result, the blaze was quickly brought under control.”

Police said damage was minimal: only a storage cabinet, water boiler, blender and some other items were affected. Lotus late-shift staff

said they were at work when they smelled smoke and heard the fire alarm sound. After locating the fire on the second floor, they contacted police and Rassada township fire authorities for help.

In the event, two fire engines were too many – but officials said they wanted to be sure the fire did not spread. They also expressed satisfaction with the shopping centre’s sprinkler system, “which allowed the blaze to be brought under control within 20 minutes”.

Investigators said they suspected an electric waterboiler set beside a cabinet accelerated the blaze.

“Either because of an electrical short or because the shop owner left it plugged in till all the water had boiled away, the resulting high temperature may have ignited flammable materials lying nearby.”

Further investigation to determine the exact cause would be conducted, officers said. Source: Manager Online

Grandfather, grandson drown at Mai Khao A 70-YEAR-OLD MAN AND his three-year-old grandson drowned off Mai Khao beach around 10:30 am on November 1.

A Phuket Lifeguard Club officer told The Phuket News that he believes the boy was running along the beach, and got swept away by large waves.

“We think he was washed into the sea, and his grandfather went to try and save him, but he was swept away too.”

Lifeguards found the man first, and 10 minutes later found the young boy.

Both were taken to Thalang Hospital, but were pronounced dead shortly after.

7

Popular Brit dies in bike accident A 44-YEAR-OLD BRITISH expat died of injuries sustained when his motorbike was involved in a collision with a truck on the main road near Tesco-Lotus Thalang on Tuesday night (November 6).

Christopher Hart died at Thalang Hospital from head trauma at about 10pm, family members said, about an hour after he rammed into the back of the truck. He is survived by his wife and three-yearold son.

“He was an all-around decent guy. Anybody he came in contact with was touched by his words and personality,” said Stephen Brierley, Mr Hart’s brother-in-law.

Mr Hart was a lover of sport and frequently took part in local football and cricket events and also helped coach youth rugby.

“He was really a truly lovely guy who was widely liked throughout Phuket,” said longtime friend Alex Seago.

According to friends, Mr Hart first came to Phuket in 2004 and later worked as a langauge trainer in Phuket Town.

Police have not revealed details about the driver of the truck.

2 dead from CO poisoning TWO BURMESE WORKERS are dead and three others are in serious condition after suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning while they slept.

Phuket police said the five Burmese workers were found in a single-storey office at a construction site on Rassadanusorn Rd, Phuket Town, one dead and four unconscious from

carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator running in their room.

The four were taken to Vachira Hospital, where another later died.

“They inhaled too much carbon monoxide, starving the brain of oxygen, which resulted in two of them dying,” a doctor confirmed.

The Phuket News

8

THAILAND NEWS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Fighting drug resistance on SE Asia’s malaria frontline Daniel Rook

A

t a remote medical outpost near the jungle-blanketed ThaiMyanmar border, a villager pricks the finger of a feverish baby living on the frontline of the war on drug-resistant malaria.

The tiny walk-in clinic – and hundreds more like it scattered along Thailand’s porous frontiers – are a key part of efforts to stop the spread of the lethal new strain from Southeast Asia to the Indian subcontinent and Africa.

For more than a decade, the fast-acting treatment artemisinin has been Thailand’s most potent weapon in the long-running battle against malaria, contributing to a sharp drop in the number of deaths.

It is the most commonly used drug worldwide against a mosquito-borne disease that infects 216 million people and claims 655,000 lives around the globe each year.

But after artemisinin-defying parasites emerged on the Thai-Cambodian border about eight years ago – and were later discovered in western Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam – fears

are growing that the wonder drug is losing its potency.

“If the resistance spreads there will be a surge in cases,” warned Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, which coordinates the global fight against the disease.

At a meeting in Sydney last week, leading scientists and health experts flagged the need for tougher political leadership and regional coordination in Asia to combat malaria, with the drug-resistant strain a particular worry.

For people living in the Thai-Myanmar border villages, malaria is a daily risk.

“When people in this area start shivering and become ill, they hurry here,” said health worker Laksanara Kaewlere, a former rice farmer who runs one of the outposts in western Kanchanaburi province.

In the local subdistrict, of about 190 cases of malaria in the past year, 40 people still had the parasite one month after initial treatment – double the number in the previous year, said disease control official Wittaya Saiphomsud.

“In the past, when we gave patients the drugs they recov-

A mosquito lays in waiting on a living room wall near you. ered completely in three days.

But now when they take them, they have malaria again within less than a month,” he said.

The authorities have begun monitoring patients taking their daily doses to ensure they complete the prescribed regimen in order to completely kill the parasite and reduce the risk of drug resistance.

Sales of counterfeit or poor-quality medicine without enough quantity of the active ingredient are also part of the problem.

On the other side of the border in Win Kan village in Myanmar’s Mon State, volunteer Than Nwet tests patients for malaria and distributes medicine provided by the Christian humanitarian organisation World Concern.

In the past, most villagers bought drugs from local shops, she told AFP. “They took medicine without a doctor’s prescription so the malaria became resistant to the drugs. About one-third of people still buy medicine

from a nearby shop,” she said.

Nobody knows for sure if artemisinin-resistant malaria was spread by migrant workers or developed independently in areas hundreds of kilometres (miles) apart.

For now the drug remains effective in most cases, and second-line treatments – albeit less potent – ensure deaths are still relatively rare in Thailand, which reported about 30,000 cases and 12 fatalities in 2011.

But experts fear that if the resistance becomes more prevalent, and creeps further westwards, years of progress will unravel.

Billions of dollars of investment and a decade of progress “will probably be hijacked” if the resistance spreads to malaria-ridden Africa, said World Health Organisation regional expert Charles Delacollette.

While Thai campaigns to encourage people to sleep under mosquito nets have helped reduce infection rates, not everybody heeds the advice.

Sitting in his home in Kanchanaburi province as he recovers from a bout of malaria, villager Chong said he is afflicted with the disease

every year, and lost his son to the illness several decades ago.

“Every month I go to the forest,” said the 57-year-old, who goes by one name, admitting that he does not use a sleeping net when he ventures across the border to cut bamboo shoots.

Decades of military rule and ethnic conflicts have left Myanmar’s health system in tatters, and malaria is endemic in much of the country.

The government reported about 420,000 confirmed cases and 788 deaths in 2010, but that is believed to be a small fraction of the actual total.

Drug-resistant cases are estimated to account for about 15 per cent of the total in certain areas, according to Saw Lwin, deputy director general of Myanmar’s health ministry.

As the country now opens up after decades of isolation, increased migration flows pose a new challenge.

When previous generations of medicines lost their efficacy, infections spiked and resistance rippled out from the region through Myanmar and eventually to Africa, which sees 90 per cent of worldwide malaria deaths. AFP

Operators say B100m of tourism threatened by ‘shallowing’ TOUR BOATS HEADED FOR Koh Chang and Koh Pyam islands are being impeded by repeated silting of the channel used for access to Pak Nam pier in Ranong town, endangering a B100-million tourism business.

A final solution apparently involves more than mere dredging – which may have adverse impact on the densely populated community living beside the channel – and thus involves local politics.

According to Ranong Tourism

Business Association president Sonjai Ouytekkeng the silting problem is a disaster for business.

“The Koh Pyam pier, behind Pak Nam police station, is becoming shallower and shallower, creating big problems for boats trying to leave or get into the pier. Boats cannot get in or out on time at ebb-tide.”

When that happens, he explained, “Tourists must be taken to other piers, leaving them confused as to their whereabouts and making a mess of other activities they have scheduled.”

Sonjai said the channel in question is more than one kilometre long.

“The community along its banks is thickly populated, so that if it is dredged and a permanent channel made it may cause problems for them. Before any work is done we have to talk.

“Another solution to the problem may be to use Tambon Ngao’s Ton Son pier, which is being discussed.

It’s only a little outside Ranong town.

We can use songtaews to take guests back and forth.

“Whatever the solution, the current circumstances constitute a problem of significant proportions for Ranong’s tourism business. The relevant agencies must get together and hammer out a solution before the situation deteriorates further, because Koh Chang and Koh Pyam are visited

by Europeans and Americans who bring in more than B100 m to this province during tourist season.”

An anonymous tourism operator noted that boats are prevented by shallow water from reaching the

pier for more than 10 days a month.

“In that case we have to go rent space at the fishing quay, meaning additional costs.

“Whenever the channel is dredged, it quickly silts up again, and the problem recurs.” He added that, to reduce adverse impact on tourism to the islands, “I’d really like to see this problem cleared up.”

It was not reported whether local politics would allow for a solution anytime soon.

Source: Manager Online

Bangkok woman becomes US Congresswoman Jody Houton editor3@thephuketnews.com

5 yrs = 300,000 THB only 15 yrs = 700,000 THB only

The Phuket News

BANGKOK-BORN TAMMY Duckworth has been elected Congresswoman for Illinois’s 8th Congressional District.

Ladda Tammy Duckworth, to use her full name, who was born to an American military father and Thai mother, is an Iraq War veteran, and was one of the first women pilots to fly combat missions in a Black Hawk helicopter.

During a mission in Iraq in 2004 she suffered severe

Congresswoman Tammy. combat wounds, losing both of her legs and damaging her right arm.

Prior to her election, she had continued to drill as a

Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard, declining a military medical retirement.

Duckworth was fitted for prosthetics and often gives talks to honour injured war veterans, as well as campaign for stricter gun laws and strengthening border control.

She took to her Twitter account early on Wednesday and said, “Thanks to you, I will be the next Congresswoman for #IL08. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done to support my campaign.”

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

THAILAND NEWS

9

‘Power tattoos’ and Thai teens Bangkok Post

P

olice raided the home of a renowned tattooist after reports of several brawls involving his ‘disciples’, who wanted to test their ‘bullet proof’ tattoos, reports said.

Police on Tuesday arrested Boonyong Luang-Jumpol, also known as “Ajarn Ton”, and seized several guns, knives and pornographic CDs from his home in Yanglad district.

Ajarn Ton is a well known astrologer and claims to be a ‘sorcerer’ tattooist. Many believe that people bearing his tattoos are invulnerable to gun shots and cannot be pierced by any knife or sword.

The raid came after several locals in the area complained to the police that teenage brawls in the area have increased in the past several months. The youngsters also gather in large groups, causing trouble and scaring people in the area, police said.

Kalasin police chief Pol Maj-Gen Kanisorn Noi-narth said most of the teenagers involved in the fights claimed to be followers of Ajarn Ton. They said they wanted to try the ‘power’ of their tattoos to see if anyone wielding a weapon can hurt them, he added.

Police said the brawls usually occur in crowded areas, like the local markets or during carnivals.

Pol Maj-Gen Kanisorn said police officers who raided his home were surprised by what they found.

“We expected it to be filled with relics and Buddha statues, but instead we found an arsenal,” he said.

Police confiscated nine guns, 121 bullets, 18 swords and a number of fake guns at Ajarn Ton’s home, he said.

Ajarn Ton and his follower, Somchai Khunsuth, were taken into custody and initially charged with possession of weapons without a licence.

Ajarn Ton said he had been in the busi-

ANTI-VIOLENCE PROTEST IN DEEP SOUTH Thai Muslim villagers and students

take part in an anti-violence protest a day after a car bomb planted by suspected separatist militants killed three and injured sixteen in the restive southern province of Narathiwat on November 5. A complex insurgency calling for greater autonomy has plagued Thailand’s far south near the border with Malaysia since 2004, claiming more than 5,300 lives, both Buddhist and Muslim, with near daily attacks. Photo: AFP

Thai man pleads guilty in bogus rhino hunting case The inked often feel blessed with ‘powers’. ness for 10 years. Apart from tattoos and telling fortunes, he also offered herbal treatments to villagers.

He admitted that his clients were usually teenagers who cannot afford to pay for the tattoos with money.

“They usually pay me with guns and knives, so I take it,” he said. “I didn’t know that it’s illegal.”

He also claimed that he didn’t know that teenagers like to try out the ‘power’ of his tattoos.

“I always teach them to be responsible,” Ajarn Ton claimed.

Thai men getting tattoos in order to apparently be blessed with superhero and animal-like powers is quite common in the kingdom, with many of the tattoos (sak yants) often being inked by tattooists and even certain monks.

British Consulate in Pattaya closes Pattaya One

FOLLOWING MONTHS OF speculation, the British Embassy in Bangkok have now confirmed on their website that the British Consulate in Jomtien, Pattaya will close.

The British Ambassador to Thailand H.E. Mark Kent made the announcement in a statement issued on the British Embassy website www. ukinthailand.fco.gov.uk on Tuesday (November 6), confirming the closure of the British Consulate which has shocked many in the British community in Pattaya.

Former British Honorary Consul Howard Miller said, “I am shocked by the decision. When I was Honorary Consul, the Consulate was

not only busy but for many of the elderly British residents of Pattaya, it was an essential local service which allowed them a local link with the Embassy and would save them a trip to Bangkok to receive documentation for long-stay visas which Immigration require them to present with their visa application.

“I am also puzzled as to why they would keep a Consulate open in Chiang Mai that sees less than a third of the business and consular cases compared to the Pattaya Consulate.

“I can only hope that they will look to reconsider the decision as soon as they can.”

The Ambassador confirmed that a new British Honorary Consul will be

appointed in Pattaya but consular cases will be dealt with by the Consular section of the British Embassy.

This decision comes as British Foreign Secretary William Hague visits Thailand after a brief trip to the Democratic Republic of Laos where he re-opened the British Embassy there.

The closure date for the Pattaya Consulate has yet to be confirmed but with the high season months approaching which normally sees an increase in consular cases dealt with by the British Embassy and its network of Consulates and Honorary Consuls, some are questioning the timing of the closure and if it should even be taking place.

A T H A I NAT IONA L accused of organising bogus trophy hunts to sell rhino horns on the international black market pleaded guilty in a South African court on Monday (November 5), local media reported.

Chumlong Lemtongthai, who was allegedly part of a syndicate that paid prostitutes to pose as hunters, admitted to

abusing the country’s hunting permit system.

South Africa is facing an unprecedented wave of rhino killings with close to 500 animals slaughtered this year.

Local media had reported that Chumlong would pay friends, strippers and prostitutes to pose as hunters and export the horns under trophy permits, of which a

limited number are issued yearly. Charges against five of Lemtongthai’s co-accused were dropped in the court east of Johannesburg, the news report said.

The animals’ distinctive horns are hacked off to be smuggled to the lucrative Asian black market, where the substance is falsely believed to have healing properties. AFP

WHEN YOU’RE SICK OF GIRLIE FOOD JOIN US FOR A JUICY STEAK Great steaks, burgers and salads.

Happy hour drinks and live sports in the heart of Patong.

OPEN LUNCH TIME UNTIL LATE

Patong Promenade Rooftop. Corner of Bangla and Rat- U- Tit Rd. Patong.

The Phuket News

10 ASIA NEWS

Philippines pushes for South China Sea solution at summit THE PHILIPPINES ON Monday pushed its call for an international solution to overlapping claims in the South China Sea at an Asia-Europe summit, saying vital global shipping lanes were at stake.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino raised the issue in bilateral meetings with leaders of the European Union as well as with Swiss President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and Nor wegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in Laos.

“We noted the increasing importance of maritime security” in what Manila calls the West Philippine Sea, said Aquino’s chief spokesman Herminio Coloma.

“There was agreement that it was a matter of international interest considering that a significant amount of world trade passes through that body of water,” he told reporters in the Laotian capital Vientiane.

“Switzerland and the EU and to some extent Norway indicated their firm support to the Philippines in terms of our position that conflicts and disputes in that area are to be resolved peacefully and following international law.”

Coloma said Aquino is also likely to raise the issue at a plenary session of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) later Monday and in bilateral discussions with the leaders of Japan and Italy.

More than 50 Asian and European leaders or their representatives are attending the ASEM summit, held every two years. AFP

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

China’s painful past displayed under a large political shadow

A

group of museums commemorating China’s violent Cultural Revolution is opening up normally tightly controlled discussion of the chaotic era – but only up to a point.

Businessman Fan Jianchuan has opened six museums about the ten year period beginning in 1966 when China’s then-leader Mao Zedong called on ordinary citizens to struggle against entrenched interest groups – including government officials.

The 55-year-old says he’s filled six warehouses with artefacts from the period, when young people formed often violent “Red Guard” groups and those labelled as “capitalist roaders” were publicly tortured at mass rallies.

“I see myself as an archaeologist of the Cultural Revolution,” Fan, a former government official who made a fortune as a real estate developer, said in his museum office in the southwestern city of Chengdu.

But what he calls “political sensitivity” has meant that he keeps the vast majority of his collection hidden from view.

“What I have on display is barely five per cent of what

This photo taken on September 25 shows Chinese businessman Fan Jianchuan with relics of the Cultural Revolution at his museum near the city of Chengdu. Photo: AFP I’ve collected,” said Fan, who plans to open a seventh museum on the era next year.

The ruling Communist Party keeps detailed discussion of the Cultural Revolution out of mainstream Chinese media, worried that an open debate could be used to justify unrest and also undermine its official history of a period it refers to as a “serious setback” for the party.

Mao Zedong set the period of lawlessness in motion to boost his authority, previously

undermined by the disastrous effort to modernise China known as the “Great Leap Forward,” which led to a famine that killed millions in the late 1950s.

China has never stated estimates of how many died in the decade of political campaigns, which saw citizens turning on their neighbours and caused half a million deaths in 1967 alone, according to US-based British historian Roderick MacFarquhar.

The spectacular downfall this year of Bo Xilai – former

party boss of the southwestern megacity of Chongqing, who is set to face trial for corruption and other crimes – has thrust the Cultural Revolution into the spotlight.

Bo’s revival of “Red culture,” which saw Maoist quotes sent to citizens’ mobile phones and massive “Red song” concerts, along with his charismatic leadership style, reminded many party insiders of Mao’s excesses.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao – lawyers for whom this week rejected a New York

Times report on the wealth of his family members – hit out at Bo’s administration in March, when he also called the period “a historical tragedy”.

An increase in social discontent over the past 10 years, evidenced by rising numbers of protests, has made Chinese leaders more reluctant to mention the period, Guobin Yang, professor at US-based Barnard College, said.

“I see a tightening of space for discussion of the Cultural Revolution over the last decade, including on the internet,” he said.

“There is a fear that the Cultural Revolution could be a resource for protesters to justify their activities.”

Fan’s collections have seemingly escaped censure by mostly avoiding the violence of the time, and by not using the term “Cultural Revolution”.

Due to government pressure the period is instead referred to as the more-neutral “Red Era”, said a museum assistant, who requested anonymity.

Most government-funded museums in China avoid mentioning the period altogether. AFP

Australia still committed to Malaysia asylum policy AUST R A LI A SA I D I T remained committed to sending asylum-seekers to Malaysia for processing and insisted it is not necessary for Kuala Lumpur to be a signatory to the UN refugee convention.

Canber ra last year clinched a deal to send 800 boatpeople to Malaysia in exchange for 4,000 of that country’s registered refugees as a deterrent to people paying smugglers to make the dangerous maritime voyage to Australia.

The plan was scotched in the High Court and was also opposed in the Australian parliament, which insists asylum-seekers should only be sent to countries that have signed the UN refugee convention. Malaysia has not.

But with Australia facing a record influx of boatpeople this year – more than 13,500 since January 1 – and an offshore camp in Nauru filling up fast, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said the plan needed to be revisited.

Carr was in Malaysia this week and said the government in Kuala Lumpur remained committed to the deal and deserved credit instead of criticism for how they had dealt with asylum-seekers.

“I confirm that we will continue to adhere to our commitment to take 4,000 refugees over four years,” he said.

“The Malaysians could do without some of the badmouthing of their eminently good reputation that occurred

when the matter was last debated (in parliament). Their sincerity on this can’t be doubted,” he added.

He said Malaysia had about 100,000 refugees and around two million illegal workers.

“So they feel great pressure but they deserve praise for taking an enlightened and an innovative approach to this problem, which affects the whole region, of peoplesmuggling,” he said.

Carr acknowledged that

45x90 |

Malaysia was no closer to signing the UN convention but said: “It’s very silly if that’s a stumbling block.

“As Malaysia sees it, they have two million illegal workers, they have 100,000 refugees, they’re dealing with this and they can deal with it without signing the convention,” he said.

“We were more t ha n happy with the assurances that they gave us when we negotiated the arrangement with them.” AFP

75x75 | 80x80 |

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THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

US ELECTION 11

Battle-hardened Obama makes history once again B

arack Obama’s re-election for another term in the White House opens a new chapter in the already historic tale of the first black president of a nation scarred at birth by a deep racial fault line.

But for Obama partisans his re-election was essential.

Only with a full eight years at the helm of the US presidency will he be remembered for the change he wrought and not just for the change he represented.

Though it was key to the euphoria that greeted his first election in 2008, Obama’s race has rarely been a dominant political theme since.

Quickly, the same political dynamics faced by many of his predecessors: divided, vicious, partisan politics threatened to swamp the 44th US president.

All presidents crave the validation of a second term but for Obama that desire may have been even more keen, as his Republican foe Mitt Romney had vowed to quickly reverse much of his legacy.

Obama’s whole political project, the idea that America is not as divided as it seems, that a grass roots movement can change a nation from the bottom up, and that hope has tangible political power, was on the line.

“Our destiny is not written for us; it’s written by us,” Obama told a crowd at a recent New Hampshire rally, seeking to revive the sense of possibility that powered his first election win, but has since dissolved.

“We look forward to that distant horizon, to that new frontier. We imagine a better

US President Barack Obama accompanied by First Lady Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia appears on stage on election night November 6 in Chicago, Illinois, following his victory over Governor Mitt Romney. Photo: AFP America and then we work hard to make it happen.”

Now, much of Obama’s second term will be devoted to cementing the legacy of his first.

He will enshrine his health care reform – the most sweeping social legislation for 50 years, which Romney promised to end on his first day in the Oval Office – deep into American life.

Obama may get several more chances to reshape the Supreme Court for a generation, after adding two women, including the first Hispanic justice in his first term.

And the president, 51, will solidify his reforms on gay rights, women’s rights, student loans and financial reform

and may yet even seek ways to tackle global warming and immigration reform.

Obama, now a graying, sometimes terse and wizened figure is a changed man from the beaming young dreamer who bounced on stage in early 2007, on a bitterly chill day in Illinois, and announced his presidential bid.

“You have seen the scars on me to prove it. You’ve seen the gray hair on my head to show you what it means for fight for change, and you have been there with me,” he told a crowd on Monday in Madison, Wisconsin.

Rocketing from political obscurity, Obama, a senator for only two years, promised to use “the power of hope” to

transform a nation – a message he belted out to massive 2008 crowds, often moving his audience to tears.

He invoked a politics where people could “disagree without being disagreeable”.

But the hope and optimism of his win over Republican John McCain barely survived the first contact with polarised Washington politics.

Obama the president emerged as an elusive figure of many contradictions.

A Nobel Peace laureate who got US troops out of Iraq, Obama ruthlessly applied lethal force in a drone war and the mission to kill Osama bin Laden.

Candidate Obama chided political leaders who feuded

over “small things” yet lambasted his 2012 foe for a flip flopping condition he calls “Romnesia”.

Obama inspired a generation to get into politics for the first time: but once president, appeared to disdain the grubby business of getting things done in Washington.

He was devoted to the grand gesture on the world stage – for example his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo in 2009 – but despite some success, his presidency hardly transformed America’s place in the world.

And the hope that exploded in 2008 soon fizzled.

Four years on, some things have not changed. Obama retains the burning self confidence, – foes call it arrogance

– and a fierce will to win.

In its way, his victory on Tuesday night could be historic in its own right, as Obama defied a level of economic blight that made other presidents one termers.

Busting convention is written in Obama’s political DNA – not for him a political apprenticeship in the Senate: he left to slay the mighty Hillary Clinton machine in the 2008 Democratic primary.

Matching dazzling oratory with a formidable grass roots network, Obama, along with cerebral aides like David Plouffe, re-invented how US elections are won in 2008.

Obama, despite the claims of conservative conspiracy theorists, was born in Hawaii in 1961 to a black Kenyan father and white mother from Kansas. His father abandoned the family when “Barry” Obama was just two.

His mother Ann, an anthropologist who died in 1995, took her son with his new stepfather to Indonesia and he returned to live with his grandparents in Hawaii in his restless teens.

After attending an elite Hawaii academy and two colleges including Columbia University in New York, Obama went to the elite Harvard Law School and was the first AfricanAmerican to edit the Harvard Law Review.

M a r r ie d i n 19 9 2 t o Michelle, a fellow lawyer, Obama rose through bareknuckle world of Illinois politics then announced himself to the world at the 2004 Democratic convention. AFP

Defeated Romney calls for unity in Washington

Mitt Romney. Photo: Gage Skidmore

REPUBLICAN CHALLENGER MITT Romney conceded defeat in the US election early Wednesday, telling supporters that he had called President Barack Obama to congratulate him on his victory.

“His supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations,” Romney said in a brief address at his election watch party in Boston.

“I wish all of them well but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters.”

It was a quick, underwhelming end to an 18-month campaign that began on a farm in New Hampshire, survived brutal Republican infighting during the party primaries early this year and a barrage of negative attack ads by the Obama camp, and rose to give the incumbent a serious scare weeks before the election.

Romney was neck-and-neck with the president for a considerable part of the campaign, but despite repeated trips to swing states like

Colorado, Ohio, Florida, and Virginia, Obama held on to leads in the battlegrounds, which eventually became the challenger’s undoing.

“This election is over, but our principles endure,” said Romney on Wednesday morning, a former governor of Massachusetts who said he believed smaller government, limited regulations and lower taxes could create more jobs and bring a speedier economic recovery.

“I so wish that I had been able to fulfil your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader, and so Ann and I join with you to earnestly pray for him and this great nation,” Romney said to cheers and applause.

Several members of Romney’s senior staff stood next to the stage, many stone-faced and sombre, as the Republican nominee addressed his supporters.

Romney returned to a theme that he began injecting into his stump speeches in the

closing two weeks of the campaign: the need for greater bipartisanship in Washington.

“At a time like this, we can’t risk partisan bickering and posturing,” he said.

“Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people’s work and we citizens have to rise to the occasion.”

Romney also thanked his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, as well as wife Ann Romney, his tireless surrogate on the campaign trail whom he called “the love of my life”.

“She would have been a wonderful first lady,” he mused, to loud applause.

Romney’s comments were brief and basic, and it was not immediately clear if he had written a concession speech.

Earlier in the day, when asked by reporters on his campaign plane whether he had two speeches ready to go for Tuesday night, he said he was confident of defeating Obama and had penned an 1,118-word victory speech. AFP

The Phuket News

12 BUSINESS NEWS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Outrigger takes over property on Phi Phi THE OUTRIGGER PHI PHI Island Resort and Spa officially opened at the weekend.

Since Saturday (November 3), the 156-key, 177-rai property, formerly known as the Phi Phi Island Village Beach Resort and Spa, has officially been run by Hawaii-based Outrigger Hotels and Resorts.

Outrigger took over sales and marketing of the property a year ago. Since then, extensive improvements have been made, including the addition of 44 new Deluxe Garden Bungalows.

“We have started to implement Outrigger international standards across facilities, food and beverage and human resource services,” said Darren Edmonstone, Managing Director Asia Pacific for Outrigger.

“It’s a completely new era for one of the most beautiful beach resorts in Thailand.”

The new 53-square-metre Deluxe Garden Bungalows are the highlight of the changes.

They are located in clusters giving the atmosphere of a traditional Thai village. Inside, the interiors are contemporary with Thai touches.

“With

IN BRIEF Direct flights from UK next year

Sunseeker founder Robert Braithwaite (left) and Phuket Vice-Governor Sommai Preechasilpa open the Sunseeker ‘stand’ at this year’s Pimex boat show. Sunseeker has chosen Phuket to host its International Distributor Conference.

Sunseeker dealers heading for Phuket

unseeker, British manufacturer of sleek motor yachts, has chosen Phuket as the venue for this year’s annual International Distributor Conference, which will be held from November 14 to 18, at the JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa. A total of 152 distributors and dealers from around the world, some with their spouses, will fly in for the event.

Presiding over it will be

S

President and founder Robert Braithwaite CBE DL, and Managing Director Stewart McIntyre, who will bring 39 staff from the UK factory.

Also in attendance will be 15 of the major parts suppliers, including engine makers, electronics suppliers, tenders and shipping agents.

“With other ancillary staff we will have over 240 people here for the four days,” Craig Murphy, Managing Director

of Sunseeker Thailand/MaxMarine Asia, told The Phuket News.

“During this time we will have presentations on new products and innovations from the factory and the suppliers.

It is a chance for all of us to collaborate on direction for Sunseeker yachts.

“There is, as always, a family feel to the whole conference with lots of party functions over the time,” he added. These

will include a golf tournament at Blue Canyon on November 17, and “a big fancy dress party” with an Asian theme that evening.

“Max Marine Asia/Sunseeker Thailand are extremely proud to be chosen as the country to host the event,” Mr Murphy said.

Mr Braithwaite is no stranger to Phuket. Earlier this year he was at the Pimex boat show to open the Sunseeker stand.

,

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New Kalima Resort opens THE NEW FI V E-STA R Kalima Resort & Spa has officially opened with a 220-degree view over Patong Bay. The locally-owned and -operated resort features a large elevated poolscape overlooking the bay, surrounded by modern-tropical suites and pool villas, a jungle nature trail, a mini nine-hole golf course and a private “hillside beach”, Kalima Sands, which doubles as a nightlife venue.

Phuket-based developer The Cape View Resort & Spa Co., has invested B1.1 billion in the new 190-room luxury resort, which is located on 26

rai of land that slopes up to 79 metres above Kalim Beach.

Managing Director Paponphat Niyomadul said, “We aim to give our guests a truly unique experience with a very contemporary back-to-nature theme offering a variety of excellent accommodation options for single travellers, couples and family groups alike.”

GM Somchai Suwannagate stressed, “Behind the scenes we have many energy-saving and ecologically-sound practices built into the resort such as energy-efficient air conditioning, and we used non-toxic construction materials.”

British airline Thomson Airways is to launch weekly direct package flights from London’s Gatwick Airport to Phuket starting from November next year.

The new route will be making use of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane – capable of carrying between 210-250 passengers on non-stop routes of up to 15,000 kilometres.

Thomson Airways will be the first tour operator to offer direct flights to Phuket from the UK.

Tourism bucks economic trend

Despite economically difficult times, people’s desire to travel has not been curbed, with an upward trend attributed to the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries, according to World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

U N WTO predicts a growth of up to 4 per cent in international tourism arrivals in 2013 as the global tourism industry proves resilient in the face of the current economic situation.

Plan to revive Kingfisher

The billionaire owner of India’s grounded Kingfisher Airlines has announced that he will present to the Indian government a “comprehensive” plan to revive his debtladen carrier.

Vijay Mallya met India’s Civil Aviation Secretary KN Shrivastava last week ahead of presenting a revival blueprint for his beleaguered carrier.

“I have briefed him on the revival and restart plan,” the 56-year-old told reporters after the meeting in New Delhi. “It will be a comprehensive plan.

All hurdles will be crossed,” he said without elaborating.

Heavily indebted Kingfisher’s licence was suspended in October until it came up with a “viable” revival plan.

Dusit, Indigo, win travel ‘Oscars’ Phuket picked up three major gongs at the World Travel Awards 2012, held at the InterContinental Singapore.

Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket took two awards at the ceremony, being named Asia’s Leading Beach Resort for the third year in a row, and Thailand’s Leading Golf Resort for the fourth year running.

Indigo Pearl took the award for Asia’s Leading Design Hotel, a prize it also won at the 2010 Awards.

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

BUSINESS NEWS 13

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

DNP scraps huge park fees hike TTR Weekly

IN THE FACE OF A DELUGE OF criticism from the travel industry, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) has cancelled its planned massive hike in park entry fees.

The DNP announcement, dated October 30, cancelled the planned hike, which was originally due to come into force at the beginning of October. In the face of industry fury that date was moved back to January 1. Now the rises have been scrapped altogether.

The new entrance fees, comprising rises of as much as 150 per cent, would have applied to 29 popular parks in Thailand including, locally, the Surin and Similan islands, darlings of the dive com-

panies, and Hat NoppharattharaMu Ko Phi Phi, including iconic Maya Bay. The DNP said the cancellation would alleviate the burden on the private sector and would support the government’s tourism policy to achieve revenue of B2 trillion in 2015.

Tour operators were furious with the announcement of the fees hike because they had already agreed on contracted prices for winter season tours and in some cases through to October 2013.

There were also suggestions that the DNP lacked transparency over its budget spending and fee collection, and accusing it of poor management.

Apart from giving very little

notice to the travel trade, the fee hikes were as high as 150 per cent at some of the most popular parks.

This prompted the private sector to call for clear justification on why such big increases were needed.

The DNP failed to respond in a way that satisfied the critics.

Last increased on December 1, 2007, the present fees will remain valid until further notice. Thais pay B40 at the listed national parks except for Mu Ko Surin and Mu Ko Similan, which costs B80. Foreigners pay B200 except for Mu Ko Surin, Mu Ko Similan, Pha Hom Pok, Inthanon, Thung Salaeng Luang, Phu Kradung, Khao Yai, Lanta and Hat NoppharattharaMu Ko Phi Phi, where they are charged B400.

Thais currently pay B80 to visit the Similans, while foreigners cough up B400.

Govt dusts off Kra ‘Upgrades’ for tourism sites landbridge project TTR Weekly

PATONG BEACH, PHUKET Town and Promthep Cape have all been earmarked for “upgrades” as part of a B1 billion government project to improve tourism sites.

Also on the list are Koh Phi Phi and Ao Nang in Krabi.

Thailand’s Department of Tourism, which is supervised

by Ministry of Tourism and

Bangkok Post

N

ew Energy Minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal has vowed to move ahead with plans to construct the southern landbridge or oil pipeline linking the Andaman Sea with the Gulf of Thailand, creating a shortcut that would avoid the journey through the Straits of Malacca and round Singapore.

The landbridge idea is by no means new. At its narrowest point just south of Ranong, the Kra Isthmus is just 44 kilometres wide. The landbridge was first proposed for defence reasons in the reign of King Narai, more than 330 years ago, and has been revived numerous times since then, but never carried out.

Former prime minister Chatichai Choonhavan floated the idea in 1989. The National Economic and Social Development Board completed a master plan for the project in 1992.

The project was revived by the Thaksin Shinawatra government, but shelved after the Asian Tsunami hit Thailand in 2004.

Earlier versions of the landbridge project called for the construction of infrastructure and supporting facilities such as a rail and land transport network and an oil pipeline from the Sichon District in Nakhon Si Thammarat to Tap Lamu in Phang Nga. The project would also draw massive new investment, especially for tank farms, oil refining plants, and related petrochemical industries.

However, the earlier versions ran into heavy opposition from communities and

Sports, said 29 tourism sites around the country have been selected for an upgrade as part of a plan to generate more tourism revenue.

The department’s acting deputy general director, Anupap Gaesornsuwan, said the 29 sites were selected out of 100 screened by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

“The improvement project at sites in 18 provinces could

cost B1 billion,” he said. “Each site is popular with local and foreign tourists, but improvements are deemed necessary.”

Some of the sites are villages that became popular with Thai tourists, while others are more traditional tourist attractions.

The 29 sites form the first phase of the project, with the second expected to cover the remaining 71 sites.

WE BELIEVE THAT THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT IS ESSENTIALLY BASED ON SERIOUS MANAGEMENT

E NC RIE PE EX S AR YE 40 OF MORE THAN 20 YEARS AT YOUR SERVICE IN THAILAND. Various routes for the landbridge have been proposed, but the shortest is just south of Ranong. Photo: Google Maps. environmentalists concerned about the heavy concentration of industrial and oil-related complexes on the Andaman and Gulf coasts.

On Monday, his first day in office as energy minister, Mr Pongsak – a close aide of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra – said the project will help enable the government to increase its planned strategic oil reserve to 90 days of daily consumption from 36 days at present.

Mr Pongsak said the new plan for the landbridge would allow overseas investors to participate.

In a related development, the new minister has assigned nation oil conglomerate PTT Plc to study the feasibility of expanding oil pipeline development to rural areas from the existing oil pipeline running from Map Ta Phut in Rayong and Si Racha to Bangkok’s two airports, Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang.

MAIN CONTRACTOR:

Study Project Architecture Design Construction & Management

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14 LETTERS / VIEWPOINT

Opinion

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editor@thephuketnews.com

Editor’s Viewpoint

Norachai’s World

Money matters

I

Use me, no transaction charge.

n these tough economic times, money can quite often be too tight to mention. Yet over the last week it has seemed to permeate the news more than usual.

An armed bank robber stuck up a Kasikorn branch in Phuket Town and absconded with around B2.7 million. It only took around 60 seconds.

There was no security guard to bypass, no bullet-proof glass to smash and nobody or nothing that hindered the plucky guntoting man in the slightest. He was gone in a flash.

It was therefore hardly surprising that the the unfortunate incident took place, (in fact it later transpired that the bank robber had done it before elsewhere) but what was surprising was how quickly the police managed to catch up with the robber.

The police caught up with him within 48 hours and managed to recover B2.5 million of the haul.

Well done the Boys in Brown. Credit where credit is due.

Speaking of which, two Bulgarian men were arrested

Letters to the editor

Dangerous driving [Re. ‘ Parents dead, baby survives in Chalong horror crash] I think Thai people as a whole are very loving, honest, gracious people.

But then, as in any country, there are the others you have to be very weary and cautious about.

I was puttering along on my Honda motorbike on the side of the road at the speed limit. Some jerk in a stretch white van came roaring past and clipped me while passing at high speed, sending me to the pavement, damaging my bike, knees, feet, elbows, hands and putting a big knot on my head.

As I drag the bike to an upright position, bleeding from four places and dazed, the driver is already yelling about a 4 inch scratch on the van demanding money or he will call the police.

I told him to go ahead, I was going home to mend my wounds.

Jon W.

Just a publicity stunt

[Re. Surin hoteliers oppose Paris Hilton NY party] Conspiracy theory! Perhaps those that are opposing the event are the very people behind it creating a publicity stunt. It is practically impossible to transport 50,000 people in and out of this event let alone the logistics of buses and accommodation.

Amongst locals we suspect this event shall never happen and is simply a very clever publicity exercise to promote Surin beach.

Local residents

In the name of democracy [Re. Protesters block new Red Shirt Village plan] Seems these red and yellow kids will never grow up, a pity some are in power, but they seem to have a lot of juvenile followers. Grow up kids, you can have your say at voting time.

This is a democracy, which means, you can vote for whoever you like, and if you want your vil-

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

lage to be red or yellow, the it is your democratic right.

Laurie Howells

A good result for Petch [Re.‘Mum, I can breathe now’] Very happy for the boy! Finally the mother gets to get some quality sleep.

Kelvin Lim

More than just assault?

[Re. Krabi teen gang “well known to police”] “Seven stab wounds to his shoulder and arm, one of which was eight inches deep”.

If this isn’t attempted murder then there is no such thing.

Magnetozz135

More DJs in Phuket Town please [Re. Asian-nominated DJ of the Year spins at Bliss tonight] The promise of Western disco pop culture dawns in Phuket –too bad

it’s so far away from where I live.

Can’t some good DJs open a club in Phuket Town?

Would be great. mej313

Repercussions called for [Re. Phuket hotel wall collapses on neighbourhood] Yep, that’s “thrilling” alright... geez.

How about some criminal charges for this? At the very least, the engineers/ architects should lose their licenses... if there is such a thing here.

Dave

Squatters rights?

[Re. Locals protest over loss of regular market] Um...who owns the land? Did these people pay any rent? Are they legally allowed to occupy the land or are they trespassing? If they have no right, to be there, why do they think they have the right, to be consulted?

Laurie Howells

this week when they went to retrieve skimming equipment from, again, a Kasikorn ATM machine in Karon.

The cheeky chappies had installed a high-tech device that was to be used to copy ATM credit card details that could then be used to steal cash from the copied accounts.

Again they were foiled by the BIB (Boys in Brown) who swooped in and arrested them when they arrived to withdraw their illegal equipment.

On Wednesday a man was arrested for posing as a representative of a new police chief and extorting money 41 times from local businesses on behalf of the police department.

He said that the money he was collecting for was bouquets for powerful police officers. He amassed at least B1.5 million.

Again surprising and shocking. Surprising that so many businesses, restaurants and companies believed it was a) an acceptable request and b) it was plausible.

Money makes the world go round and makes people do stupid things, well at least to four people on the island this week.

Stop your grizzling [Re. ‘No boutique hotels will be affected’ – Sydictive] I think the party will be a blast.

People should stop complaining, it’s a New Year’s party for crying out loud. Everywhere else in the world is celebrating too!

If you’re looking for peace and quiet go dig yourselves a hole and rot there. That’s all I’ve got to say.

AJ

Dangerous driving [Re. ‘Mum, I can breathe now’] I remember reading this story when it came out. At the time, reading the boy’s mother is a single mum really made it all that much worse.

Glad to see she and Petch are able to get some relief now.

Some readers might consider this update to be a bit of self-promotion for the paper, but cynicism aside, Petch and his mother are better off for the publicity and the paper exposing this tale of woe.

Well done The Phuket News.

Nathan

Letters may be edited for clarity or length. Email editor@thephuketnews.com. Please include your full name, phone number, and email address.

The Phuket News

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

06

Saddle up as we meet Tam, Phuket’s number one cowboy

13

Bond’s back with the anticipated Skyfall, but is it any good?

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

POWERED BY

Hobbit fever in New Zealand How Peter Jackson’s new movie trilogy is boosting tourism in Aotearoa > p10

Photo: AFP

The Phuket News

2 CULTURE

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 9,9,2012

A Patong hotel embraces art Visiting a property where the art is every bit as important as the rooms Jody Houton editor3@thephuketnews.com

Often guests attempt to buy them, but I have to explain that they are individual pieces that have been carefully selected for each room and are not for sale

The Phuket News

B

Lay Tong in Patong celebrated its one year anniversary under Accor management with drinks, dining and entertainment last Friday (Nov 2).

As well as throwing a party, it was an opportunity for the colourful and artistic hotel to showcase the weird and wonderful works of art that it has on display throughout the premises.

General Manager Wesley Hayden explained that a vibrant art presence was something that the B Lay Tong owners wanted to establish almost immediately after hiring Accor.

“Our owner had an interest in art and is actually an artist and musician himself, so when he hired us [Accor} he set about purchasing art for each of the rooms.”

All of the pieces are one-off works of art, something that guests have been quick to appreciate.

“I was shocked at how popular they were. Often guests attempt to buy them,

Clockwise from top: GM Wesley Hayden stands in front of a huge artwork, the restaurant area, and an artist busy creating at B Lay Tong. but I have to explain that they are individual pieces that have been carefully selected for each room and therefore not for sale.

“Everything is contemporary, all abstract. It’s all really quite unique.”

Proving its commitment to the arts, B

Lay Tong even has its own studio – Art Gallery Collection.

Indeed, an evening’s stroll around the extensive grounds of the Patong beachfront hotel sometimes feels like you are walking around a museum of modern art, albeit one surrounded by palm trees.

EDUCATION 3

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Nawat Sawattong (centre) surrounded by adoring classmates on his arrival at Phuket International Airport.

Phuket science whiz takes prize in astronomy comp

Life is far from a theme park for many South Korean children.

S. Korean parents turn to crime over ‘foreign only’ schools

S

outh Korean prosecutors Tuesday charged 47 parents with forging documents to enrol their children in foreign-run schools to give them an edge in the country’s hyper-competitive education system.

Among those indicted was a 37-year-old housewife, identified by her surname Kwon, who hired a broker in 2009 to create false British and Bulgarian passports, the prosecutors’ office in the western city of Incheon said.

Foreigner-only schools in South Korea require at least one of their students’ parents to be a foreign citizen, and Kwon used the passports to gain admission for her daughter.

She was also accused of faking a Guatemalan passport to transfer her daughter to another school.

Kwon allegedly paid about 100 million won (B2.8 million) for the fake documents.

Access to foreigneronly schools is seen as hugely advantageous, because English is the medium of education in them and it provides a useful stepping stone to eventual overseas study.

Students in education-obsessed South Korea begin learning Eng-

lish at the age of nine, and parents spend a small fortune on private cram schools to improve their fluency levels.

Those who can afford it often send their children to high schools abroad.

Some of those charged on Tuesday had secured false passports of African nations while others had travelled to Central America to obtain forged citizenship papers there, the prosecutors said.

The indictments came days before 600,000 students across the country sit a crucial college entrance examination for which most have been training in one way or another since pre-school.

Competition is intense for a place in one of the top universities.

Access to these will play a major role in determining everything from job opportunities to marriage prospects.

Most high school students work late into the night and throughout their school holidays for years to prepare for the exam.

Education fever takes a heavy social and economic toll, with families driven into debt by private tuition fees and dozens of stressed students committing suicide every year. AFP

N

awat Sawattong, who won third prize in the International Astronomy Olympiad, returned home to Phuket last Friday (November 2) and was greeted by family and friends.

Nawat, a grade 9 student at Phuket Wittayalai school, fought off competition from students from 20 other countries to take third prize in the competition.

He was one of five Thai students representing the country at the competition, held in South Korea.

The International Astronomy Olympiad is an annual scientific

astronomy challenge for high school students, aged 14 to 18 years-old.

“Initially I was a bit scared, but after the second round I felt better and more confident about the test,” he told The Phuket News.

“I really love physics, [and had] the chance to take part in the IAO,” he said, and in doing so discovered “so many interesting things” that he has pledged to enter again.

“I missed out on the silver medal by only four points, so I will enter again next year.”

Pornsak Jindapon acting Phuket Wittayalai School director

told The Phuket News that Nawat, studying in the top science and maths classes, was “very clever”.

“He gets good grades every semester,” he said.

Nawat dreams of one day being a computer engineer, but for now the softly-spoken lad is busy and enjoying school life.

The Phuket Wittayalai School is well-known on the island for its students’ science skills.

The school regularly sends students to take part in science and mathematics competitions, and before Nawat’s achievement, a student from the same school had previously won the International Mathematical Olympiad.

SCARY SCHOOL KIS children and teachers enjoyed a wide range of Halloween-based activities including a best costume competition, ‘Whack the Ghost’, ‘Find the Letter’, ‘Apple Eating’ and ‘Halloween Musical Statues.’

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The Phuket News

4 ENVIRONMENT

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 9,9,2012

Mövenpick plans to be green around the globe Jody Houton editor3@thephuketnews.com

M FLY ON LITTLE WING The sixth edition of the Phuket Butterfly Release will be held from 8am to 3pm on 17 November at the Bang Pae Waterfall. For more information, call 076 210 861 or visit phuketbutterfly.com

övenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket is gearing up for its second year’s Green Globe stamp of certification in a bid to be regarded as at the forefront of a more environmentally aware hospitality industry in Phuket.

Green Globe is identified around the world as representing the highest quality in sustainable practices within travel, tourism and related industries. Being awarded a the Green Globe stamp means that a hotel has fulfilled a list of requirements, contained in mandatory and guideline criteria, followed through and audited on a yearly basis.

In 2009, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts announced its global sustainability programme based on three key focus areas: social, environmental, and employer sustainability. In 2011, the Karon-based Mövenpick began the process of becoming accredited.

Hansruedi Frutiger, the General Manager said, “It only lasts for one year. We were the first hotel in

Pets

L-R: Brigitte Rohling, Hansruedi Frutiger and Nampetch Tipaxsorn along with a non-plastic bottle of water, which is made 100 per cent from plants.

Phuket to get involved in this.”

He added that in re-applying for the second year’s certification and preparing for the next audit, they were learning more about how to become more environmentally sustainable.

Brigitte Rohling, the Resident Manager of Mövenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket said, “It’s becoming a necessity that we [Phuket] do it now. We recycle already and are much more aware of energy consumption and so on.”

She added however that, “Things aren’t going to change overnight. The authorities need to become more aware to make changes at a local government lev-

el.” One thing that you are likely to see on a visit to the resort is the new eco-friendly bottles, that are made 100 per cent from plants and contain no plastic whatsoever.

“They cost a little more to produce,” said Nampetch Tipaxsorn, Director of Marketing Communications, “but we will be charging customers the same price as we did for plastic bottles.”

Another thing they have changed since the last Green Globe audit is the water heater.

Previously it was an old fashioned one that used ‘heavy oil’, but now they have changed to LPG gas, which doesn’t emit toxic smoke.

Every month, the best pet wins a B500 voucher from:

This eight-month-old dog, Hoo Dum, belongs to Issareya Bhat Taramark, aged nine.

This Shih Tzu poodle cross, named Tong, belongs to Paritta Wangkiat. Tong means “jump” in Thai and this is certainly something this loveable pooch loves to do. He is about two years old and loves all types of meat, especially liver.

Want to see your pet here? Email your photos to editor1@thephuketnews.com The Phuket News

HEALTH 5

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Wanted: Dutch poop for scientific study

T

hree top Dutch medical schools are asking thousands of travellers to tropical countries to donate stool samples on return for a study into the rise in antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

The combined study, launched this week by the Academic (AMC), Erasmus and Maastricht medical centres will focus on 2,000 travellers mainly to Asia and Africa, said AMC researcher Jarne van Hattem.

“These travellers will be asked, upon vaccination by a number of travel clinics, if they would like to participate and send stools to us for a year after their return from the tropics,” Van Hattem said.

He said there has been a rise in antibiotic resistant intestinal bacterial infections in the Netherlands and researchers wanted to see whether these bacteria hitch a ride with travellers who pick them up in exotic destinations.

The team further want to study whether these bacteria are transmitted to non-travelling relatives upon return home to the Netherlands, known for its strict control of the use of antibiotics for fear of building up resistance.

All volunteers will receive a home DIY-kit with swabs and a special plastic ‘safe bag’ in which a swab sample will be sealed and sent to Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam.

Participants are asked to send three to six samples over the course of a year, with researchers hoping to publish their findings about 30 months afterwards.

It’s not all give and no take though.

“Those who send up their poop will be rewarded with a special Fokke & Sukke cartoon strip specially drawn for this study,” the AMC said in a press release.

Fokke & Sukke are two crudely drawn but hugely popular Dutch cartoon characters known for their politically incorrect views and often scatological sense of humour. AFP

Jody Houton editor3@thephuketnews.com

Dough is still dough whether you make bread or pastries – the raw material is always the same

Above: Dr Abhishek Agrawal at the entrance to his Kata studio. Below: Dr Abhishek touches his toes, in the alternative, yoga way.

F

Teaching the science of yoga

or many Westerners, yoga is often seen as counter-culture, alternative and even mystical. As such, in India – the birthplace of the discipline – one would think that the locals would practically be born in an ‘asana’.

However, you’d be wrong, Dr Abhishek Agrawal, from Narayanganj in the state of Madhya Pradesh, said that far from being immersed in yoga from an early age, he got into it rather late, and in a very formal way.

“I started practising yoga in 2000 when I was a student as part of my Bachelor of Naturopathy and Yoga sciences degree.

“Yoga wasn’t part of my culture or anything like that, neither my father or grandfather did it.”

Still, looking back he said that despite coming to yoga at a relatively late age, in many ways he’d been practising elements of yoga since birth.

“Although I wasn’t taught the postures or studied the actual postures until later, I was a vegetarian and also followed the spiritual side of Hinduism.”

Dr Abhishek added that the common perception that many people in India had was that only holy men (known as yogis) do yoga. Despite this, he’s quick to point out that he is not a yogi.

“Yogis have disciples who follow them, I have students. They follow celibacy and abstain from everything not required to do yoga. Without the spirituality you

cannot really be a yogi. I call myself a professional yoga teacher and I focus on diet, nutrition and postures. I have never met a ‘real’ yogi, but that’s also because I haven’t really been searching. I believe in knowledge.”

Indeed, Dr Abhishek has a very scientific approach to the discipline, focusing on the physiological, not spiritual benefits of practising, “It’s a great way of staying healthy and preventing illness.”

He added that everybody, no matter age or gender, can benefit from regular yoga exercise.

“People who go to the gym are only strengthening [and] constricting the muscles, it isn’t making them more flexible like yoga does.

“Yoga is good to improve flexibility and circulation, which leads to an increase in energy levels.

“Everybody should practise yoga and give priority to yoga. They should do at least 10 sessions in order to try the different classes and levels and see how their body responds to see if they are suited to yoga.”

For any visitors to one of the two Abbysan Yoga centres – located in Phuket Town and Kata – they will be able to join one of a number of tailored classes, according to level of advancement and even gender.

Dr Abhishek said that he followed Hatha yoga, but that no matter the name or style – be it Bikram or Abbysan – the postures, style and form are essentially the same. “Dough is still dough whether you make bread or pastries – the raw material is always the same.

The Phuket News

6 PEOPLE

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 9,9,2012

Tam the Thai cowboy Isaya Thongchua reporter3@thephuketnews.com

Making leather products is one of three things that Tam cannot live without.

The other two are country music and riding horses

Above right: Just a man and his machine on the open road. Right: Tam at his Phuket Townhome with his sewing machine where he makes premium designer leather goods.

The Phuket News

I

f you’ve ever been to the Naka Weekend Market in Phuket Town, it is likely that you will have met or seen self-styled bar-tending cowboy Sieksan ‘Tam’ Siechoo.

He is perhaps most recognised, at least among the shopping tourists and members of the island’s foreign community, as the owner of the rather unique bar set right in the middle of the market.

Tam is an avid nature lover and decided to build his cowboy-themed bar with the concept of sustainability in mind. For instance, in place of bar chairs he has used large tree stumps to sit on.

“It’s meant to look like a log cabin, with nothing artificial or man-made about it,” says Tam. For decoration he added cactus plants to represent the arid desert of the American west. In keeping with the cowboy theme he has an old Texas driver’s license pinned up to a wooden pole below the bar, and one of Tam’s old leather boots has been cleverly crafted into a pot plant.

After wandering the endless lanes of market stalls seeking bargain souvenirs and trinkets, many a tired feet are rested and parched throats quenched at the bar.

As well as Tam’s cowboy-themed watering hole, which is as distinctive as he is, his home also doubles as a shop front for his other business – making leather products.

In fact making leather products is one of three things that Tam cannot live without.

The other two are “Country music and riding horses.”

Tam’s leather shop is located inbetween a hair salon and flower shop off Chalermprakiat Road, easily identifiable by the bright red vintage Chevrolet C10 that is parked

outside. His work space is scattered with odd bits of leather and the smell of glue and cow hide lingers in in the air.

Tam was born in Tanort, Songkhla.

The province is generally known for its rice and shrimp farming, which are two of the most important economic activities in rural southern Thailand.

He chuckles when The Phuket News asks him why he didn’t end up, like all the other Thai men in his neighbourhood, working on the shrimp farms.

“I’d dreamed about being a cowboy since I was a young boy.”

He recalls that after school he would rush home to watch cowboy movies and then rewatch them until the tape on the VCR player

would start to skip.

At the age of 21, Tam was enlisted in the Thai Army in Chanthaburi province for two years and, as fortune would have it, at that time they were only accepting applicants for leather making positions.

So he spent the next four years repairing the leather belts and shoes of the officials in the Yala and Pattani regions.

After finishing his studies in the Army School, Tam decided to move to Phuket, his reasoning behind the move was to find a niche market to sell his handmade leather goods.

As Tam could see that there was a growing expat community living in Phuket, he decided that his target market would be primarily non-Thai-big bike lovers who were looking for custom-made leather boots, belts, bags, wallets and, of course, saddlebags.

Tam’s work is of a very high quality and he is quick to point out that throughout his 30 years in the leather industry he has made a conscious effort to sell his leather products for at least a third of the cost of Italian designer leather.

He feels that everyone should be entitled to afford a good leather bag without it leaving a burning whole in their pocket.

A genuine Tam small tote bag costs around B4,000 and leather jackets between B7,000 and B10,000. He favours using cow hide over crocodile, as despite being less aesthetically pleasing it is more durable and doesn’t tend to crack after long usage.

When Tam isn’t manning his bar in the market, or creating custom-made pieces at his Phuket Town shop, he spends his free time teaching kids at the Mae Fah Luang School for Disadvantaged Children.

He gives a warm smile as he describes his work with the kids, “It is not easy to find a job that you are passionate about. It’s good that I can teach these kids a trade so that they will be able to stay off the streets, and take care of themselves without needing to lean on their parents for support.”

WEIRD WORLD 7

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Toddler tested for STI’s after tasting infected condom

T

he ‘yuck police’ are out in full force in the US state of Florida.

A three-year-old reportedly found a condom at a daycare center and placed it in her mouth.

The mother of the girl had the condom tested and it came back positive for gonorrhea, reports said.

Since the December 2011 incident, the mother of the girl – Tiesha Sanders- has had her daughter consistently tested for diseases. Symptons may take up to a full year to show, reports said.

Now, a lawsuit has been filed by the woman against the organisation that runs the daycare center – the Jacksonvill Urban League.

“If it happens to my daughter, it can happen to yours,” Sanders told reporters.

Little girl shot by cousin, mistaken for skunk

A

n eight-year-old girl in a black and white costume was shot by her grownup cousin who mistook her for a skunk.

During a Halloween party in Rochester, Pennsylvania, the eight-year-old snuck away after sunset. When someone told her aunt Janet Grant that a skunk was spotted outside, she told her 24-year-old son Thomas to shoot it.

Ms Grant pointed a flashlight near the hillside as Mr Grant shot what he thought was a skunk with a shotgun.

Reports say neither one knew it was the little girl, who was hit in the arm, shoulder, back, and neck.

The girl was hospitalised and in critical condition as of last week.

“Nobody can really understand it,” a neighbour told reporters, adding that Grant shouldn’t have been shooting at that time of night or near other houses.

Anyong! Elephant can speak Korean ‘sit down’, ‘no’, ‘lie down’ and ‘good’, though there is no evidence to suggest he understands the meaning of the words.

To form the words, Koshik puts his trunk into his mouth and is said to be understood by anyone fluent in the language. Cognitive bioligists Angela Stoeger and Tecumseh Fitch suggest that the elephant, who was the only one of his species at the zoo for the first five years of his life, was able to adapt during this crucial period of Koshik put his trunk into his mouth to speak. bonding and development.

“We suggest that Koshik started to adapt his vocalisations to his human ven with an animal accent, companions to strengthen his social Koshik the elephant is able to affiliation with them, something that speak to humans in Korean.

The elephant, an attraction is also seen in other vocal-learning species and, in very special cases, at the Everland Zoo in South even across species,” Dr Stoeger told Korea, has a vocabulary of reporters. five Korean words for ‘hello’,

E

Woman sets breast milk donation record

W

hen this lady is asked ‘Got milk?’ the answer is a resounding yes.

A 28-year-old woman in Texas is now the Guinness World Record holder for “Most Breast Milk Donated”.

Between June 2011 and March 2012, Alicia Richman pumped out and donated a total of 694 pounds (87 gallons) of breast milk.

After giving birth in March 2011, she began to store her milk but quickly realised that she was running out of room. She contacted the Mother’s Milk Bank of North Texas once two freezers of her breast milk were completely full.

The nonprofit organisation collects breast milk donations for critically ill and premature infants in need.

According to a press release from the organisation, Richman’s donation was able to feed “hundreds, and more likely, thousands of premature babies across the United States”.

After all the media attention, Richman explained that she wanted to encourage other mothers to donate.

“I’m so thankful that I’m able to help not only my own baby, Drake, but all of the little babies who need it and are sick,” Richman told reporters.

THE BIG LIST Oddest records

We’ll take your breast milk, and raise you some long fingernails and ear hair.

Record books are littered with grand achievements that sometimes touch on the bizarre. Let’s pry that weird book open.

Furthest squirting milk from eye: A 28-yearold Turkish construction worker named Iiker Yilmaz (above) set the record in 2004. He proceeded to snort the milk up his nose and squirted the liquid about 279.5 centimetres thorugh his eye. He broke the previous record of 266 cm set in France in 2001.

There have not been any record attempts since.

Longest f i n ge r n a i l s : After 18 years of refusing to cut her nails, 45 -year- old g r a nd m o t he r Chr is Wa lton has officially set the world record for longest fingernails. Her nails are an incredibly long 6.09 metres, though she claims there are no problems with performing everyday tasks like cleaning, and using the computer.

Spinning a basketball on a toothbrush: The masses were enthralled the entire 22.41 seconds that Thaneshwar Guragain spun a basketball on a toothbrush held in his mouth. The 23-year-old Nepali broke the previous record of 13.5 seconds set by Thomas Connors of the UK. Guragain also holds four other Guinness World Records, including most basketball dribbles in a minute (446), longest spin of the Guinness Book on a finger (30 minutes), most tennis passes in one minute (38), most tennis passes in three minutes (96), and most inane records ever recorded (alright, we may have made that up).

Longest ear hair: The grossest world record goes to India’s Anthony Victor (pictured below) whose ear hair is poking 18.1 cm outside of it’s waxy home.

Guinness World Record officials measured the hair from the c ent er of h is outer ea rs to the tip. Victor s m a s he d t he previous record, almost doubling it, which was held by another Indian man and measured at 10.2 cm. Now that’s noise reduction technology, Indian-style.

Cycling backwards while playing violin: Christian Adam set the record for cycling backwards while playing the violin in 1963. Adam set the record in five hours and nine minutes and was able to cover 60.45 km on a section of unopened highway in St. Gallen in Switzerland. Want more? He did it all while wearing a tuxedo. Afterwards, it was assumed that he asked for a martini, shaken not stirred. The name’s Adam, Christian Adam.

The Phuket News

8 DINING

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 9,9,2012

The truth about MSG KARMIC EATS Sylvie Yaffe editor@thephuketnews.com

Sylvie Yaffe is the founder of Good Karma Online Health Food Store and consults about vegan raw cuisine and health food, as well as writing a regular column for The Phuket News. For more information, visit healthfoodthailand.com

Y

ou may not know it or feel it, but MSG (monosodium glutamate) is in many things you eat.

It can bring on uncomfortable and even long-term side effects.

There is an ongoing debate about it being a myth, but once you know the side effects it is easier to identify them after consumption.

MSG in its natural state is a naturally according amino acid. However it is industrially processed and hydrolysed when manufactured for consumption, thus turning it into a neurotoxin. This means that MSG tricks the brain, not the tongue, into believing the food is tastier.

On its own, MSG itself does not have a good taste, but combined with other foods it enhances those flavours. It is used in often in processed foods, fast foods, flavourings, meats, canned foods, powdered stocks, sauces, dips, dressing the powder packs with dried noodles and even comes with green mango that you buy from the fruit vendor here in Thailand.

So what’s wrong with tastier you ask?

Well, when it’s used to mask bad taste in meats that are getting old, for instance.

Also the flavours of food alone should be enough to excite our taste buds.

For the occasions when I have inadvertently eaten food with a lot of MSG, specifically when I forget to request no MSG, I suffer headache, fogginess, insomnia, thirstiness and heart palpitations followed by exhaustion. It is only at their onset do I

Do you know the truth about MSG? Photo: Dominik Schwind

then remember that I ate something, and in the case of a restaurant, forgot to mention the magic words, no MSG, (in Thai: mai sai pong-chu-rote).

The substance is found in the majority of Thai kitchens (look for the clear bag with red print and larger shiny flakes, also available at every 7-11). Ask a Thai cook why they use it and they say the food will not taste good with out it. Quite disconcerting considering natural Thai herbs and spices, without the neurotoxic enhancement are pretty spectacular on their own.

Very often items that do not list MSG on their list of ingredients still have it (manu-

facturers are clever and deceiving that way). Other names to look out for on ingredient labels are natural flavouring, artificial flavouring, seasoning and spices – just to name a few other names for MSG. Long term studies are being conducted to the effects on the body, and one, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in a March 2011 study in China, found a direct link between consuming MSG and obesity in adults.

Living in Phuket, however, it is very hard to completely avoid MSG. Reducing your intake though is a good start to feeling better.

Bangkok Beer & Beverages, island's largest wholesaler of 500+ premium beverages from 12 countries.

Ask for our extensive portfolio: bart@bbb.co.th and visit www.bbb.co.th for more info.

Tel: 076-200751-3, Fax: 076-200754

The Phuket News

A FINE DINING NIGHT Around 30 people attended the JM Cazes five course dinner, held at the Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket on Wednesday (October 31).

Guests were treated to a range of food and drink.

DINING 9

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 EUROPEAN

Tre by DoublePool Villas

Bodega & Grill

Bodega & Grill is situated on a picturesque patio by the lagoon. The restaurant serves premium char-grilled steaks and seafood from a woodfired oven, as well as authentic homemade pastas, risottos and paellas. Bodega’s generous steaks are available in portions of up to 1.2 kilogram. Angsana Laguna Phuket, 10 Moo 4 Srisoonthorn Road, Cherngtalay; 076 324 101

Mom Tri’s Villa Royale

An array of culinary experiences is offered to tempt and intrigue in Tre - the exclusive contemporary French Vietnamese restaurant set among the superb surroundings of the DoublePool Villas. Tre’s signatures dishes include scallops and green apples and tartar with pan-fried foie gras. Banyan Tree Phuket, 33, 33/27 Moo 4 Srisoonthorn Road, Cherngtalay

INTERNATIONAL Bistro Restaurant

ITALIAN

SEAFOOD

Acqua

RE KÁ TA Beach Club

Connoisseurs of fine cuisine can revel in Acqua’s experiential concept. The Acqua restaurant experience promises to deliver only the freshest of ingredients, sourced from only the best producers both local and international. Taste explosions from the portfolio of Chef Alessandro Frau, of both traditional & contemporary are offered. Kalim Bay-Patong 076 618 127

The beachfront restaurant off­ers modern innovative cuisine with a strong focus on seafood.

In the evening RE KÁ TA transforms with Kata’s magical sunsets and cool sounds along with the delicious drinks and tapas, right on the beach.

Open daily 6.30am-11pm; 184, Koktanode Road, Kata Beach (next to Boathouse); 076 330 421; info@rekataphuket.com, rekataphuket.com

Art Caffè

THAI Baan Vijitt Restaurant

Enjoy fine dining with panoramic sea views in sensually indulgent setting. Delicious Thai and European creations are served on the open-air terrace. Mom Tri’s Villa Royale is the winner of the Wine Spectators Award of Excellence. Situated on the only road into to Kata Noi Beach.

Reservations recommended. 076 333 568; momtriphuket.com

Tablespoon Salad & Grill

All-day dining restaurant right in the heart of Patong. Located on the ground floor of the Millennium Resort Patong Phuket’s Lakeside Wing, this restaurant offers a great selection of items for lunch and dinner. Millennium Resort Patong Phuket, Lakeside Wing Ground Floor, 199 Rat-Uthit 200 Pee Road, Patong; 076 601 999; millenniumpatong.com

The idea of Art Caffè comes from the need to have a place to stop and enjoy something different. Meet friends, exchange ideas, propose initiatives, organizing events or reflect only reading, watching and perhaps enjoying a good cup of coffee. The exhibition space is an affront to the repetitiveness of the artistic culture of the island. Art Caffè Phuket, Rawai; 076 388 546

Boathouse Wine and Grill

DaVinci

A half-century old Sino-Portuguese style house at The Vijitt Resort Phuket offers a unique authentic experience of Thai cuisine with a focus on regional specialties. Thai Select Premium Award certifies the quality and standard of product and service here. The Vijitt Resort Phuket, Rawai; 076 363 600; fb@vijittresort.com

Baan Talay

Discover newest stylish restaurant in modern vintage setting. Creative and unique salad and grill menus are served while you experience a delectable dining in romantic and intimate atmosphere with a reasonable price tag.

Open 11am-10pm. 2nd Floor, HomePro Village, Chalong; 076 383 244

The legendary Boathouse Wine and Grill is a celebration of great French and Thai cuisine right on Kata beach, simply the best oceanfront dining on Phuket. The wine cellar houses over 800 bottles and has been awarded Best of Award of Excellence by Wine Spectator since 2006.

Open daily 11am-11pm; 182 Koktanode Road, Kata Beach; 076 330 015; fb@boathousephuket. com; boathousephuket.com; facebook.com/ boathousephuket

The Caddy Shack

Great food and people you know! Authentic Italian cuisine in Nai Harn area. Three different dining areas, cocktail lounge, children’s play area, Delicatessen, live music....DaVinci is not just a meal, it is an experience of taste, atmosphere and more. Restaurant open daily 5pm-11.30pm; Deli open 11am-6pm; Sunday close; 076 289 574. davinciphuket.com

Diavolo

Irish Times

Come in to experience our famous Sunday roasts, we also serve full English breakfasts from 9:30am, lunch & dinner til late & daily specials, with 3 big screens, come in & watch your favourite sports. You’ll find us next to the entrance of Loch Palm Golf Course in Kathu.

Great food, great banter and great music. Don’t miss this hidden treasure. 087 993 8737

FRENCH Breez Restauant

Phuket’s most exciting new restaurant is situated on the waterfront at Cape Yamu. Chef Cheryl Johnson is providing diners with her innovative modern French interpretations of local ingredients. Open from Tuesday to Saturday for dinner, and from Wednesday to Saturday for lunch. Our menus change frequently. Cape Yamu, Paklok; 081 271 2320

The only Irish owned and managed Irish Pub in Phuket. A real Irish Pub at the heart of Phuket’s world famous nightlife. In this traditionally styled Irish pub you will find a very warm welcome from the Management and their fantastic staff.

All your favourite Irish food and beverages.

Irish Times Pub, Jungceylon, Patong Beach; irishtimespub-phuket.com

Set right at the beach of Bang Tao Bay, Baan Talay offers fresh Thai seafood and local delights. Featuring large outdoor fish-tanks and an open show kitchen, guests are spoilt for choice. Offers indoor seating as well as a large terrace, complemented by a breeze and views of the sea. Angsana Laguna Phuket, 10 Moo 4 Srisoonthorn Road, Cherngtalay; 076 324 101

Straits Dining Restaurant

A menu of modern Mediterranean influences created by Chef Ryan to tantalize the senses in a modern ambience. Offering everything from fresh seafood pastas to simple good pizzas. An impressive selection of well priced beverages and stunning sea views complete the experience. Open daily for lunch or dinner. Paresa Resort, Kamala Beach. 076 302 000

JAPANESE

Super Natural

Tamarind Restaurant

Super Food deserves a Super Location. SuperNatural and more. The only waterfront restaurant in Phuket serving exciting raw vegetarian cuisine in addition to our delicious seafood, Thai and International menu. Great selection of fresh to order juices & smoothies, as well as great wines and chilled beers.

Open 365 days a year. Facebook SupernaturalPhuket, 2.5km south of Chalong Circle.

To complement an already distinctive cuisine, Tamarind is bringing to the island high quality authentic Japanese cuisine, courtesy of Master Chef Shiraishi. Gracing our Japanese menu will be fresh sushi, sashimi, healthy salads, yakitori and tempura and much more. Tamarind is your ultimate destination to savour the best Japanese cuisine in Phuket. Banyan Tree Phuket

Featuring classic dishes from around Thailand, get authentic northern fare with our Kantok set, spice up your dinners with our fiery Southern dishes, and end it all up with a much-loved mango sticky rice dessert. Bistro Restaurant, Millennium Resort Patong Phuket, Beachside Wing Second Floor, 199 Rat-Uthit 200 Pee Road, Patong; 076 601999; millenniumpatong.com

Talung Thai

The restaurant has a stunning sunset location, offering views of the Andaman Sea. The menu of southern Thai specialties and true local dishes, are not seen on many other restaurant menus in Phuket. Chill with a cocktail from our award wining mixologist at sunset and then relax with authentic Thai cuisine. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Paresa Resort, Kamala; 076 302 000

The Phuket News

10 TRAVEL

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 9,9,2012

My precious...

New Zealand out to mine tourist magic from Hobbit movies Neil Sands

People still talk about Lord of the Rings, people still remember the films. You choose to watch a film, which you don’t do with an advertisement, and that makes people more receptive

The Phuket News

F

rom a giant, bug-eyed Gollum sculpture looming over passengers at Wellington Airport to promotional banners covering the facades of entire office blocks, the upcoming The Hobbit movie is impossible to ignore in New Zealand.

Tourism chiefs, hoping to recreate the surge in visitors inspired by the original The Lord of the Rings trilogy, have launched a massive marketing campaign around director Peter Jackson’s latest Middle Earth three-parter.

Like the first trilogy, The Hobbit movies use New Zealand’s mountainous scenery as a backdrop, amounting to what some tourism insiders gleefully describe as a nine-hour long advertisement for the country’s rugged charms.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler does not go that far, but says the films offer the country invaluable global exposure that can be converted into increased visitor arrivals.

“We aim to show potential travellers that the fantasy of Middle Earth is in fact the reality of New Zealand,” he said.

But behind the hype, official figures show the first of the new movies The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey cannot come soon enough for an industry struggling

for momentum almost a decade on from the original Middle Earth saga.

New Zealand’s international visitor arrivals jumped from 1.5 million to 2.4 million between 2000 and 2006 on the back of The Lord of the Rings but have remained flat at about 2.5 million for the past four years.

A recent Tourism Industry Association report expressed concerns New Zealand had “lost its edge” and was no longer regarded as a must-see destination.

“New Zealand is perceived to have fallen off the global radar as a desirable destination to some extent,” the report found.

“In part, as a result of increasing competition from other destinations, and in part because of economic conditions in (tourist) generating countries.”

The earthquakes that devastated Christchurch in 2011, resulting in 185 deaths, and a local currency pushing record highs have also not helped matters.

Tourism operator David Gatward-Ferguson said that when the first Rings film was released in 2001, the industry was surprised by the influx of visitors wanting to travel to places featured in the movie.

“We were initially caught out, yes, and geared up over the next year or two to meet demand,” he said, recalling a time when the currency was at a 25-year

Above: A giant Gollum creature from the Hobbit movie catches a fish on the ceiling of Wellington Airport.

From a giant, bugeyed Gollum sculpture looming over passengers at the airport to promotional banners covering the facades of entire office blocks, the upcoming trilogy is impossible to ignore in New Zealand. Photo: AFP Below: Southern lakes in Glenorchy. Photo: Sharyn Jones / Photo New Zealand. Top right: Auckland at night.

Photo: Kim Christensen / Photo New Zealand

TRAVEL 11

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 low and international travel was buoyed by a booming global economy.

Gatward-Ferguson’s Nomad Expeditions soon revamped its eco-adventure tours along a Middle Earth theme, taking tourists speaking elvish and wearing Tolkien costumes to set locations in the South Island.

With the entire tourism industry abuzz over potential spin-off benefits from Jackson’s latest project, there is little chance operators will be wrong-footed when the first Hobbit film premieres on November 28.

Tourism New Zealand has changed its “100% Pure” global branding to “100% Middle Earth” and Wellington has dubbed itself “The Middle of Middle Earth” for the premiere, contributing NZ$1.1 million (B28 million) to the event.

Middle Earth coins have been minted, Hobbit stamps issued and Air New Zealand is running an inflight safety video full of orc, elves and wizards (tinyurl.com/hobbitnz1).

The national government is so convinced of the benefits to the tourism and movie industries that when a union dispute threatened to send filming offshore in 2010, it amended the country’s industrial laws to ensure it stayed.

Glen Croy, a specialist in film-driven tourism at Australia’s Monash University, said research showed any jump in visitor numbers would not be driven by hard-core Tolkien fans sporting prosthetic Hobbit feet and pointy Gandalf hats.

He said the film’s value lay in putting New Zealand on the agenda as a destination for ordinary travellers considering a long-haul holiday, adding that the country had become synonymous with Middle Earth and each movie release reinforced the association.

“People still talk about Lord of the Rings, people still remember the films. You choose to watch a film, which you don’t do with an advertisement, and that makes people more receptive.”

He said the incidental benefits from filming in New Zealand – such as Orlando Bloom raving about Kiwi ski-fields or Stephen Fry waxing lyrical on Twitter about Wellington’s coffee – also drew people in.

Tourism New Zealand is not specifying how much of a lift it expects from The Hobbit but Gatward-Fer-

guson said the high local dollar and tough economic times meant it was unlikely to match The Lord of the Rings.

“It’ll be positive but it’ll be muted,” he said.

“There’s a lot of naysayers out there and we’re not going to get another wall of visitors, but New Zealand is small enough that we only need to win over a small proportion of the world market to make a big difference.”

The Kiwi dollar has almost doubled against the greenback since the first movie, currently around 83 US cents and tipped to threaten a record high of 88.43 US cents set in August 2011, compared to 43 US cents in late 2001.

The doubters have not prevented Gatward-Ferguson from expanding his fleet of off-road expedition vehicles by five and buying Hobbit-themed licence places to adorn them, including “Bilbo”, Smaug” and “Thorin”, all characters in the movies.

“We’ve come to our own conclusions, made our investment and now we’ve just got to wait and see if we were right,” he said. AFP Silk Air parent Singapore Airlines flies direct from Singapore to Auckland for approx. B50,000. Visit singaporeair.com to check schedules and fares. For more information on New Zealand visit newzealand. com, and for trailers of the movies visit thehobbit.com

SILKAIR CONNECTS YOU TO SINGAPORE WITH 2 MORE WEEKLY FLIGHTS From 15th November, MI759 / MI760 start operation on Thursday and Saturday.

5,960

All-in return fare from

Phuket to Singapore

THB

Flight MI759

Valid on MI759 and MI760 only

All times listed are local.

Day Thu, Sat

Depart 2100

Singapore to Phuket Arrive 2345

Flight MI760

Day Thu, Sat

Depart 1925

Arrive 2010

All-in return fares on MI751 and MI760 starts from THB 6,460.

facebook.com/SilkAir Fares quoted are for return trip on Economy Class per person, originating out of Phuket to Singapore only. Advertised fares are inclusive of associated taxes and surcharges only. Fares quoted are subject to change due to currency fluctuation and exclude agents’ service fee. Bookings to be made online via silkair.com or through authorised SilkAir agents from 01 to 14 November 2012 for travel between 15 November 2012 to 31 January 2013. Black-out travel dates apply. Subject to seat availability. Tickets are strictly non - refundable, and change of flight, date or passenger name is not permitted. Other terms and conditions apply.

The Phuket News

12 GAMING

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 9,9,2012

IN BRIEF New Call of Duty game possibly in the works Comedian Bill Murray, who voiced Captain Price in the highly acclaimed COD: Modern Warfare 3 game told reporters last week that he will meet with developers Activision and Infiinity Ward to discuss the fourth edition.

T he news was de bunked by Infinity Ward representatives on Twitter, especially with a COD: Black Ops II set to be released on November 13.

Still, the news that a new game is in development makes sense given that both game studios Infinity Ward and Treyarch have each produced a new game every two years – with the former handling the Modern Warfare series.

Murray carried on by saying that the story begins after the events of Modern Warfare 3.

Former GameStop VP stole $2 million from company Frank Christopher Olivera, the former vice president of corporate communications and public affairs, pleaded guilty to embezzling about US$2 million from the game retailing giant.

Olivera was found to have frequently moved money from GameStop to Cloud Communications LLC – a fake company attached to his personal bank account – from mid2009 to April 2011.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and is facing a maximum of 20-years in prison and a US$250,000 fine. GameStop declined to comment.

Cheat of the Week

Dishonored (All consoles) “Silent Grenade” Traditional grenades attract attention, so create a silent grenade instead.

Put two spring razors in an empty bottle or whale oil canister, and throw it at a group of enemies to trigger an effect similar to a grenade.

Blast from the Past: PaRappa the Rapper

D The Wikipad is the first tablet to use an attachable gamepad controller and will cost US$500 upon its release.

Last-minute tweaks push back release of Wikipad

N

o new release date has been set for the highly anticipated Wikipad, the first tablet with an attachable gamepad controller. Developers of the Wikipad, which was supposed to launch on October 21, have cited last-minute adjustments as the cause for the delay.

“There is a last minute opportunity to enhance the Wikipad bundle as well as a minor refinement needed to ensure our first customers are completely satisfied with the Wikipad,” said a state-

ment from the company.

Originally, the Wikipad was to be sold for US$500 exclusively at the GameStop chain of gaming stores. Customers who have pre-ordered the unit will also be provided with a “special bonus gift.” A new release date has not yet been announced.

The system features a 10.1-inch IPS screen and will support games downloaded through PlayStation Mobile, Google Play, Nvidia’s Tegra Zona, and other platforms.

Dead Island sequel adds new character, island

T

he success of last year’s favorite zombie survival game is coming back for a sequel, complete with a new character and island.

Dead Island: Riptide will include a fifth character, John Morgan, with an interesting military backstory. He’s billed as the most prepared to handle a zombie apocalypse and was a former cook on a Navy ship.

The game will also include a brandnew island, Henderson Island, with a new weather system and sight-obscuring rain.

The island also floods, with zombies hiding in the low waters.

The new island was a luxury town and vacation destination before the zombie apocalypse hit, which brings variety to the sleavy Banoi Island map.

Dead Island: Riptide will also feature new environments like flooded rivers and jungles, as well as wide-open plazas.

The game is slated for a worldwide release on April 23.

TOP CONSOLE GAMES THIS WEEK

TOP MOBILE GAMES

1

Medal of Honor: Warfighter (16+)

Xbox 360, PS3

6

Just Dance 4

Wii, Xbox 360, PS3

1

Avengers Initiative

2

Fifa 13

Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS Vita

7

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

3DS

2

Horn

3

Forza Horizon

Xbox 360

8

Moshi Monsters: Moshlings Theme Park

DS, 3DS

3

Big Fish Unlimited

4

Skylanders Giants

Wii, Xbox 360

9

Doom 3: BFG Edition (18+)

Xbox 360, PS3, PC

4

Dodonpachi Resurrection

5

Dishonored (18+)

Xbox 360, PS3, PC

10

Resident Evil 6 (18+)

Xbox 360, PS3

5

Huebrix

The Phuket News

o you remember PaRappa the Rapper?

Part music game, part two-dimensional adventure, this is one of the most memorable video games ever made. Released in December 1996 for the original PlayStation console, the game featured a rapping dog whose main love interest was Sunny Funny, a sunflower.

Throughout the game, the user controlled PaRappa as he went on his many adventures to court Sunny Funny – all of which involved him rapping.

The game can be considered a precursor to the now popular Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution series as it was one of the first to incorporate button timing and performance meters.

One memorable level saw PaRappa learn from Master Chop Chop, his kung fu guru with a smelly onion as a head.

The villain in the game was Joe Chin, another canine who also fancied Sunny Funny and would do anything to be with her.

Some of the levels in PaRappa saw him learn kung-fu, perform at a nightclub, learn how to drive a car, and wait in line to use a toilet – all of which involved him rapping in order to complete.

The game won awards for design and music in the 1998 Interactive Achievement Awards and spawned an unsuccessful sequel in 2001 for the PlayStation 2. We still think it deserves a reboot though.

Do you have a blast from the past? Let us know at editor2@ thephuketnews.com

FILM 13

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

IN BRIEF Bond series to see three-film arc

The scripts for the 24th and 25th installments in the James Bond series got the greenlight last week, just before the the release of the newest film in the series Skyfall.

The franchise’s producers – Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson – gave screenwriter John Logan the go-ahead to write a two-film story arc that follows Bond after the events in the Skyfall movie.

These would be the f irst Bond films with a story that goes beyond one movie.

Logan was nominated for three Oscars for scripting Hugo, The Aviator, and co-writing Gladiator. He has also penned the films Sweeney Todd, The Last Samurai, and Any Given Sunday.

New JFK assassination movie planned

007 : Sky Fall

007 goes back to basics FILM REVIEW J.P. Mestanza editor2@thephuketnews.com

Approx. 143 minutes Director: Sam Mendes Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris

T

he latest installment of the James Bond saga, Skyfall, accepts reality and brings the fearless, charming spy crashing back down to earth.

It’s one of the few instances in the franchise’s 50-year history where 007 is an acknowledged middle-aged man, complete with shaky knees, unshaven face, and wavering confidence: he’s one of us now.

The film goes beyond the usual high-tech gadgets and impossible action to tell a story set in today’s world of cyber terrorism and questions whether or not agents like Bond are still even relevant.

The story suggests Bond (Daniel Craig) is an aging spy playing a young man’s game. The biggest example of this is when he meets the new Q (head of the fictional Q Branch that creates the gadgets for the British Secret Service) for the first time. Though he has been played

by elder actors in previous versions, the character is portrayed by 31-year-old Ben Whishaw – by far the youngest actor to play Q. Fittingly, Director Sam Mendes created a villain that is equally as old and competent as Bond. Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) knows the British Secret Service in and out – having been one of them – and is looking to wreak havoc. Bardem, who played the terrifying villain in No Country For Old Men, is even more menacing with blonde hair and the freedom to be as charming and suave as Bond.

Both men have compelling back stories and are connected by the same figurehead – M (Judi Dench). Craig and Bardem subsequently play around with the boundaries of their characters, which helps create the feeling of siblings squabbling over their mother – but with deadly consequences.

In sum, while spying may be a young man’s game, for Bond, the old ways are still the best.

Tom Hanks is set to co-produce a new film about the assassination of John F. Kennedy with stars Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton, and Jackie Weaver attached to the project.

The script for the film – titled Parkland after the Dallas hospital in which Kennedy, his assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, and Jack Ruby (who killed Oswald) all met their demise – is based on the book Reclaiming History by former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi.

A 2013 release date is being planned to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the assassination, which took place on November 22, 1963.

Genghis Khan biopic finds director

Following his directorial debut The Man with the Iron Fists, rapper the RZA has been tapped to direct a biopic of Mongol emperor Genghis Khan.

The rapper and producer who rose to fame as the leader of legendary hiphop group Wu Tang Clan, will work on a screenplay with Apocalypse Now and Dirty Harry writer John Milius.

Shooting is expected to begin in China next year.

US BOX OFFICE TOP 10 Film

Lucas to use Disney money for education

A

fter selling his company, Lucasfilm, to Disney for a reported US$4 billion (B124 trillion), George Lucas has his sights on creating Jedis everywhere.

The famed director of the Star Wars movie franchise is using the money from the sale of the company he started in 1977 towards charity – specifically education.

“I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future, and the first step begins with the social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children,” he said in a statement.

Lucas is already the chairman of Edutopia, a foundation that empowers innovative coursework in schools. He

SFX Coliseum Phuket (Central Festival) Skyfall (E) [13+] 11:35, 13:35, 14:35, 16:35, 17:35, 19:35, 20:35, 22:35 Skyfall (E/F) [13+] 12:35, 15:35, 18:35, 21:35 Skyfall (T) [13+] 11:15, 12:00, 14:00, 15:00, 17:00, 18:00, 20:00, 21:00 Alex Cross (E) [15+] 11:20, 18:10, 20:00 Frankenweenie (E/3D) [G] 14:10 Hor Taew Tak 4 (T) [15+] 11:30, 13:40, 17:50, 22:15 Saranae Osekai (T) [G] 15:50 Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (E/3D) [13+] 11:35, 13:40, 15:45, 17:50, 19:55, 22:00

still has yet to name a specific charity for the cause.

With the acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd, Disney announced plans to release another trilogy with the Luke Skywalker and Hans Solo characters. In the deal, Disney also acquired the rights to the Indiana Jones franchise, Skywalker Sound studio, and the International Light and Magic effects company.

Weekend gross

Gross

$49.1M

$49.1M

1

Wreck-It Ralph

2

Flight

$25M

$25M

3

Argo

$10.2M

$75.9M

4

The Man with the Iron Fists

$8.22M

$8.22M

5

Taken 2

$8M

$117M

6

Cloud Atlas

$5.25M

$18.3M

7

Hotel Transylvania

$4.5M

$138M

8

Paranormal Activity 4

$4.3M

$49.6M

9

Here Comes the Boom

$3.6M

$35.6M

$3.3M

$13.9M

10 Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

SFC Jungceylon Phuket (Patong) Skyfall (E) [13+] 11:30, 13:00, 14:30, 16:00, 17:30, 19:00, 20:30, 22:00 Alex Cross (E) [15+] 17:35, 21:45 Argo (E) [13+] 12:00, 14:25, 19:15, 21:40 Frankenweenier (E/3D) [G] 11:35, 13:35, 15:35, 19:45 Hor Taew Tak 4 (T) [15+] 13:35, 17:50, 22:00 Looper (E) [18+] 16:50 Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (E) [13+] 11:35, 15:50, 20:00

As some movies and movie times change every Thursday morning, after The Phuket News has gone to press, the accuracy of the following information cannot be guaranteed.

For up -to - date information, visit sfcinemacity.com, or call the cinemas directly: SFX Coliseum Phuket 076-209000 and SFC Jungceylon Phuket 076 - 600 -555.

The Phuket News

14 ISLAND SCENE

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

SHOW TIME

FRIDAY, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 9,9,2012

Around 80 people attended a barbecue at Kata Rocks on Friday (November 2) to celebrate the opening of the first Ocean Loft show unit.

Above centre right, Developer and Managing Director Richard Pope.

Associate director Jamie Jamieson, third from left, with his team.

The Original Vision team, from left, Director Steve Gorton, Associate Director Prasert Chanhom, MD Adrian McCarroll, Associate Director Teresa Poon, Associate Director Jamie Jamieson and Director Derek Murphy.

Celeste Siam gets the party started.

SPIN, SPIN SUGAR Top DJ Celeste Siam rocked Bliss Beach Club on Saturday (November 3), as part of the second Fistpump party.

The Phuket News

Kamoun, Maimai, Pop and Poyly.

20 YEARS ON PHUKET Original Vision celebrated 20 years on Thursday (November 1) with a party at Villa Amanzi, in Kamala.

ISLAND SCENE 15

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

AND ALL THAT JAZZ The annual 2012 Phuket City Jazz Summit was held at the Katina Hotel in Phuket Town on Saturday (November 3) attracting a large group of talented musicians from Phuket who performed for an eager crowd.

The Phuket News and Live 89.5 were media sponsors.

Editha Ballesteros performs.

Sila, Chanyaporn, Kai, Jason and Boy.

Got plays the trumpet.

Pol, organiser Francois Bona, Prasert, Jeffrey and Peter.

Mick, Ali, Linda and Paul.

HELPING FILIPINOS Jocelyn Batoon Garcia, Philippines Ambassador to Thailand was welcomed by Somsak Kusuwan, General Manager of The Pearl Hotel Phuket during the launch of the programme “Consular Outreach” for Philippines citizens who live in the south of Thailand. From left, Panida Uttrapat, Kallaya Ketsuwan, H.E. Jocelyn Batoon Garcia and Somsak Kusuwan.

June and Karen.

Clare and Kath.

ON YER MARKS Phuketians dressed up to the nines on Tuesday at the Ao Chalong Yacht Club for the annual Melbourne Cup horse race event.

NAKA ISLAND 1ST BIRTHDAY Guests celebrated in style at the first year anniversary of The Naka Island, Phuket, held on Thursday (November 1) at the resort’s Royal Horizon Pool Villa. Back right, GM Eric Friedl.

Sonia, David and David.

The Phuket News

16 ISLAND SCENE

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

Costumes were on show at Sanaeha.

Photo: Dan Miles Media

Guests at Two Chefs.

FRIDAY, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 9,9,2012

Brian Woulfe, Chawalit Ratanachinakorn, Kai Webb, Marine Lucchini and Thibault Spithakis at Sanaeha.

Pongsapak Upatising and Nok at Sanaeha. Photo: Dan Miles Media

HALLOWEEN HORROR

Getting into the spirit of things, Phuketians donned fabulous, fun and freaky costumes on October 31 to celebrate Halloween at parties around the island.

Nattawut “Bond” Paewgate at Ghetto Childs. Photo: Dan Miles Media

Apiwat Tongyoun and Alongkron Rungsinara at Ghetto Childs Photo: Dan Miles Media

Having fun at the Blue Elephant. Photo: Dan Miles Media

Karen and Mark Ellison, owners of Dukes Bar. Photo: Ilse Gibson

Scary times at the Blue Elephant. Photo: Dan Miles Media

The Phuket News

Alien Dan and his wife Yin Yang are about to breed for the future of Phuket.

ENTERTAINMENT 17

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Elton John tops 60-year British singles chart list

E

New band sings the blues Claire Connell editor1@thephuketnews.com

The Blues Revival: from top left, Sherman, Ricky, Kay and Dan make up the band who will perform at the Underwood Factory next Friday evening.

Photo: Baljit

R

ecently formed Phuket blues band, The Blues Revival, will perform at the Lost Legends entertainment venue at the Underwood Factory on November 16.

The band is headed by singer, songwriter and guitarist Kay Warakulnukrol, originally from Bangkok, but who has been living in Phuket for a year.

On Friday night they will perform a range of blues – piano blues, piano jazz blues, Chicago blues, Delta blues, original blues, solo blues and “high energy” blues.

Don Bernhardt is the band’s manager and bass player, and Ricky (drums) and Sherman (piano) make up the other experienced band members.

Those familiar with Bangkok’s Saxophone bar will likely know lead singer Kay, who worked at Saxophone for 26 years as part of various groups. He once played with British soul singer Seal at Saxophone in 1989, before Seal released his self-titled first album in 1991.

Kay said he likes blues because “For me, it’s music I don’t need to really learn. I just feel it.”

“I like the old blues, mixing it up, rearranging it, cutting it in half, and making something new.”

He moved to Phuket from Bangkok for a better lifestyle for his two young daughters, but still returns to Bangkok often to play.

The Blues Revival are also working on an album, currently being recorded at Fruition Recording Studio located at Phuket International Academy Day School (PIADS).

From December 1 until the end of March the band will be playing every Saturday night at the factory, which is being developed as a new music venue.

The Underwood Factory is located on the bypass road, near the factory outlet store. The event starts at 7.30pm. Tickets are B900 for locals (children B400) and includes a buffet dinner of international and Thai food. Tickets are available on the door but bookings are recommended. Call 091 034 3381 for information.

Live 89.5’s Got Talent

T

une in on Live 89.5 on Saturday mornings from 9am to 10am with your host Siobhan McGovern as she interviews Phuket’s up and coming talent.

Hear them perform on the air and find out why they love the arts.

Name: Olivia de Perthuis Age: 14 Occupation: Student What instrument do you play and how long have you been studying?

Voice, piano and guitar.

My first voice teacher was Luisa Scarpa who I met when when I was 12. She was singing with her band, and I loved her voice and was inspired.

Then I was given lessons through my schools: first at Phuket International Academy by Emily Combe – I performed my first solo there thanks to her.

This year I moved to the British International School (BIS) and am now being taught by Khun Lin, and Mr Thacker. Mr Thacker put me on stage last month as a

solo performer in Jungceylon.

I am also singing with Tropical Voices (a group of seven girls) at Siobhan’s Music Studio (SMS). As for piano, I have been playing for a few years and am playing at SMS – I love to play guitar too.

What is your favourite thing about performing?

The feeling I get when I sing.

Do you get stage fright? How do you deal with it?

Yes, I get stage fright! I just sing the song again, breathe and talk to my friends to keep calm.

Tell us about one of your best performances.

My best performance was probably my most recent one in Jungceylon for the

IBAP Business Fair – a couple of my friends were also performing.

Who inspires you musically?

Alicia Keys was my first inspiration, and she also made me want to play piano.

lton John leads in the list of 123 songs that have sold a million copies in Britain, which was released on Monday by the Official Charts Company to mark 60 years of ranking the best-selling singles.

The biggest-selling single is John’s double A-side Something About The Way You Look Tonight and Candle In The Wind 1997 – the latter being the version of the song he sang at the funeral of Diana, princess of Wales.

It spent five weeks at number one in Britain in 1997 and shifted 4.9 million copies.

Second place went to the 1984 Band Aid charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?, which sold 3.69 million copies, while Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, released in 1975, sold 2.36 million.

The Official Charts Company is publishing a book af all 123 millionselling singles in Britain, starting from 1952.

“It is apt that, as we prepare to celebrate 60 years of the official singles chart in the UK, we do so at a time of unprecedented demand for the single, with this year set to be the biggest year on record for sales of this format,” said managing director Martin Talbot.

“This demand is also translating in to the largest number of millionsellers we have seen – this is truly the era of the super hit.”

Ten years ago when the chart celebrated its 50th birthday, only 76 singles had notched up a million sales.

Some 27 singles surpassed the mark in the 1970s, with 32 doing so in the 1990s.

But the current decade is on course to overtake both those decades, with 10 singles already having sold a million in less than three years.

Despite that, there have been no million-sellers so far this year.

There are six Beatles songs on the list, while John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, Boney M, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Celine Dion, Engelbert Humperdink and the Spice Girls have two each.

Paul McCartney has appeared on the most million-sellers: six with The Beatles, two with Band Aid and one with Wings.

Three hits from the 1950s sold a million – (We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets; Diana by Paul Anka and Mary’s Boy Child by Harry Belafonte, which was also a million-seller for Boney M. However, Unchained Melody has sold more than a million in three different versions: by the Righteous Brothers (1965), Robson and Jerome (1995) and Gareth Gates (2002).

Novelty tunes and songs linked to television talent contests also feature throughout the list.

And just seven songs have sold two million copies or more. AFP

The Phuket News

18 EVENTS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, 2012 List your event for FREE at thephuketnews.com/events.php FRIDAY, NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 9,9,2012 â¤Ã§¡ÒÃÊÕà¢ÕÂÇà¾×èÍÊÔè§áÇ´ÅŒÍÁ

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àÊÒà ·Õè17 ¾ÄȨԡÒ¹ 2555 ³ ࢵˌÒÁÅ‹ÒÊÑµÇ »†Òà¢Ò¾ÃÐá·Ç(¹éÓµ¡ºÒ§á») Saturday 17th of november 2012

at khao prataew non hunting area (bang pae waterfall)

08:00 - 15:00 ¹. / From 8 am. to 3 pm.

FRIDAY NOV 16 The Need for Altruism by Ven. Matthieu Ricard Does true altruism really exist? Is it possible to train our minds to be more caring and compassionate? How do we bridge the gap between personal transformation and fostering a more compassionate society? What is the link between altruism and happiness?

In this discussion, Ven. Matthieu Ricard will address and explore the complex topic of altruism and its role in the modern world.

Time 5.30pm until 7pm. Venue: Thanyapura Retreat Centre – Teaching Hall. 076 336 000, email: mcdirector@thanyapura.com. See thanyapura.com.

FRIDAY NOV 9 - TUE 27

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N GIBBONS PROJECT OIN A tterflies u & SPECIAL NEED AND J ees COME se 2,000 b CHILDREN lm tr ea sh fi el nt pa r 9 e 99 ite elepha ntest s ea - rel 9 wh making co phuket” 19 t n - pla odel my green m ion e cl “ hibit - Recy contest ts ex to plan - pho fairs & games animals & y it r - cha activities covered e dis - mor ewly Êͺ¶ÒÁÃÒÂÅÐàÍÕ´ Tel.076 210 861 ket n more information www.phuketbutterfly.com - phu ºÃÔ¡Òèش¨Í´Ã¶ áÅÐöÃѺ- Ê‹§ PARKING & SHUTTLE SERVICE AVAILABLE

a deliciously fresh salad bar. Start from 6.30-10pm. Contact 076 349 800-7, email chp@chr.co.th.

Located at Patong Promenade. www.hogs breath.co.th.

MONDAY NOV 12

Pool Competition at Expat Hotel Romadon Suriyan Exhibition Thailand’s Got Talent finalist artist Romadon Suriyan performed live at VR Gallery and his 5 pieces of works created during the performance are now available to view and purchase. 076 333 568 http://momtriphuket. com/artgallery/index.html.

Pool Competition at 9pm. Expat Sports Bar, Expat Hotel, Soi Taipan, Patong. www.expatsportsbar.com.

SATURDAY NOV 10

FRIDAY NOV 9

Rory Byrne - Benetton, Ferrari IBAP has the great pleasure of hosting an evening with Rory Byrne where he will discuss his career to date, covering 20 years with Benetton and Ferrari, plus his views on the future of Formula One. Byrne designed cars have won over 70 Grands Prix, 7 constructors titles and 6 drivers titles, mainly with Schumacher and Ferrari. Doors open 6pm, A2 Resort on Bypass Road. http:// ibap-phuket.org.

Sunday Brunch at Hilton Phuket Enjoy our lavish international buffet with friends and family each Sunday at Sails – a Hilton experience. Our jazz band sets the mood for a relaxing afternoon with delicious food, live cooking stations, refreshing drinks and good company. Balloon artists entertain the little ones with face painting and kids’ activities. Every Sunday at 12pm-3pm. B1,100++ per adult.

B700++ per child (Ages 5-12). Make your reservations at phuket.sales@hilton.com.

Wicked Wednesdays Ladies day. Buy one beverage get one free. Located at Patong Promenade. www.hogsbreath.co.th.

L a z y Sund ay Ja z z Mor ning at Paresa BBQ at Expat Hotel

Kick back and enjoy a lazy Sunday breakfast at Paresa with jazz music and stunning selection of breakfast dishes. Spend the rest of the day at Paresa’s Infinity Pool or Beach Club. B600++ per person. Every Sunday 9am to noon. Call 076 302 000.

Special Friday at Hogs Breath Live acoustic band. B99 beverages during live sports coverage. Located at Patong Promenade, www.hogsbreath.co.th

Sunday Roast Pork

Come Hear The Loving Words of Jesus

The Phuket News

TUESDAY NOV 13

B99 beverages during live sports coverage. Located at Patong Promenade: www.hogs breath.co.th.

SUNDAY NOV 11

Char-grilled and delicious. Tender cuts of quality meats cooked to perfection. Tasty side dishes, selection of fine sauces and

Kokosnuss Restaurant - Every Monday, Schnitzel, fried potatoes and salad buffet B190 per person. Starts 5.30pm. For more info please visit phuketkokosnuss.com.

Special Saturday at Hogs Breath

8pm, Expat Sports Bar, Expat Hotel, Soi Taipan, Patong. www.expatsportsbar.com.

Steak Night Buffet at Centra Ashlee Hotel Patong

Schnitzel Day

At The Seed Church in Cherngtalay. Enjoy a great fellowship, practical preaching, contemporary music and free snacks in one of the fastest growing churches in Thailand!

English services every Sunday at 2pm in Cherngtalay. Visit our website for directions or call for more information. See www.seed churchthailand.com. Contact 098 764 5353, 084 056 7027, 081 891 2503.

Sunday roast pork or beef dinner every Sunday 2pm onwards Expat Hotel, Soi Taipan, Patong. B290 per person. See www.expathotel.com.

Special Sunday at Hogs Breath Kids eat free when adults buy main courses.

B99 beverages during live sports coverage.

Pool Competition: Meet The Best Players in Town Designed and built by a Thai-Canadian family in 2011, The Plaza is a very fine sculpture and wall relief garden and entertainment centre. Artist’s pictures can be seen at the plaza walls all year round. The art pieces are donated by “The Unique One,” a rare selection of art by Khun Manop and Mike. Pool competition is sponsored by Komodo Bar at 9pm. Entry fee B100 plus one free beverage. Come on everybody-let’s party. Call 087 280 3282.

Pool Competition at Expat Guesthouse Pool Competition every Tuesday 9pm Expat Guesthouse Sports Bar, Patong. See map at www.expatguesthouse.com.

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9,List 2012 your event for FREE at thephuketnews.com/events.php FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Gaze of Hope

Wahoo Thailand 2013 Sport Fishing Tournament

EVENTS 19

Ao Chalong Yacht Club Everyone welcome

Offshore The Similan Islands

19th - 21st February 2013 Proudly organised by the Rawai Beach Fishing Club, (RBFC) Phuket, Thailand.

Cash and prizes totaling over 2,000,000 Baht ($60,000)

Indigo Pearl cordially invites you to

“Award winning chef from Airlie Beach, Australia.

Fabulous breakfast, and authentic western Sunday roast from 12 - 4pm - just like home! Home made desserts eg. cheesecake, bread & butter pudding, apple pie made fresh every day.”

“GAZE OF HOPE GALLERY RECEPTION” Presented by

Adriano Trapani & The Good Shepherd Saturday 1st December 18:30 until 21:30 at Rebar

There is parking on site, cool breezes and a beautiful view.

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 8.00am 7 days per week.

Tel: 090 890 8993 email: amandaleehay@bigbond.com

Come and join us for an opportunity to buy wonderful artistic works by veteran, Phuketian photographer, Adriano Trapani, in a limited edition collection.

Photographs will be available for early bidding in the Indigo Pearl lobby from the 15th November. All proceeds go to the Good Shepherd Charity Migrant Worker Outreach Project, in Phuket and Thailand.

790THB net per ticket inclusive of drinks, canapes and 20% discount on all Indigo Pearl food outlets on the event date Dress Code: Black & White

info@rawaibeachfishingclub.com Warren tel: +66 (0) 812604291

For more information or booking, please contact: Bastien Giannetti email: bastien @indigo-pearl.com Tel: 076 327 006

Andy tel:

www.indigo-pearl.com

+66 (0) 862739948

Website: www.rawaibeachfishingclub.com For further details please contact Warren Crowe or Andy Bright

Radio

Rawai Beach Fishing Club is an official Sponsor Club of the International Game Fishing Association. RBFC supports IGFA’s standards of good sportsmanship in recreational fishing

by

THURSDAY NOV 15

Resort is a sellout every year. American chef serves a festive buffet of delicious appetizers, hearty main courses & mouthwatering desserts. Live entertainment – soloist playing classic US pop/rock and the amazing Bungha Malee band.

Pork Roast and Roast Chicken

Starts 6pm until late. It’s a great night out, call Charlie now on 089 728 5304 to book.

Every Thursday. Buffett include salads, soups, mashed potatoes, bread dumplings.

ALL YOU CAN EAT B190. www.phuketko kosnuss.com.

SATURDAY NOV 24 - DEC 3

Enjoy Karaoke night every Thursday at Ao Chalong Yacht club. Starting at 7pm. Call 090 809 8993.

Laguna Phuket Tri-Fest

Free express manicure for ladies. Free beverage for ladies on arrival, 50% off drink list for everyone all night long. From 6pm to midnight - DJ tunes till late. RE KA TA Beach Club at Boathouse.

FRIDAY NOV 16

Laguna Phuket Triathlon on Sunday 25th November and Ironman 70.3 on Sunday 2nd December, launch the high season in carnival style, are linked by a “Tri-Fest” of related training and social events for the many age-group and professional athletes who flock from all over the world each year to soak up the unique triathlon ambience.

C o nt ac t 076 3 62 3 0 0 w w w.lagu naphuket.com/events/tri-fest, info@lagu naphuket.com.

EVERY DAY

Kata Beach - Soi Taina 11

Loi Krathong Festival Loi Krathong is one of the most beautiful festivals in Thailand. The event occurs on the full-moon night of the 12th lunar month.

The festival originates from Sukhothai Province. Loy means to float and Krathong is a lotus-shaped boat made from banana leaves. The festival is of Brahmin origin to honour Mae Khongkha, the Mother Goddess of the Waters. Before people float their krathong, they make a wish. It is believed that the krathongs carry away sins and bad luck.

Karaoke Night Fever

Manicure Ladies Night

WEDNESDAY NOV 28

FRIDAY NOV 30 AustCham Phuket Sundowners Australian Thailand Chamber of Commerce social and business networking soiree at the new Hogs Breath Cafe on the 3rd floor of the Promenade Plaza off Soi Bangla in Patong, at 5.30pm. (Opposite the old burnt Tiger disco). Contact harry@ladypie.com for more details.

SATURDAY DEC 1

SATURDAY NOV 24

Meet up with your friends to enjoy good drinks and food at Allstar Restaurant & Sports Bar. Burgers, pasta, steaks, ribs, Thai food and much more. Our kitchen is open 12pm untill late. Dagens Husman (Swedish specialty). Every day 12-5pm watch games from all international football, F1, golf and much more or just come for a drink! We also show live sport from Sweden. Call 091 159 01 22.

Happy Hour at Sugar Reef Happy hour 4-8pm. B60 on all beers and house doubles B120. Also Sunday roast served from 2pm. B299 adult and B150 children. Opposite Tesco Cherngtalay www.sugarreefbar.com

Double Happy Hours At the end of the Rawai beach strip, Rawai Plaza is the best entertainment venue for those who seek a bit more fun after a good meal. Listen to good music, enjoy sport on large TV. Play pool or dart games or just enjoy the unique surroundings. Selected beverages. At 4-8pm and midnight till late.

Plus free pool sponsored by Komodo Bar. From 8- 9.30pm. Come on everybody Let’s party. Call 087 280 3282.

Curry Fridays at Navrang Mahal Every first and third Friday a month, allyou-can-eat authentic Indian curry buffet, B449 net per person. 7pm-11.30pm. Call 076 286 464.

THURSDAY NOV 22

Thanksgiving Dinner at Friendship Beach Resort Thanksgiving Dinner at Friendship Beach

Pure Blue Foundation presents a night of Chocolate Decadence La Terrazza Come and join us at La Terrazza opening, the beautiful Sunset Bar & Lounge right on the rocks over Nai Harn beach. DJ set, live art performance, fire player bartender show, midnight lucky draw. Free buffet from 8 - 10 p.m., first drink on the house, 50% off on next drinks, special treats. Just past the Royal Phuket Yacht Club.

We suggest parking at Nai Harn temple parking lot. Limited tables available.

Please call 084 509 1975. Look for us on Facebook: laterrazza.phuket.

Put a spring in your step and a twinkle in your heart under the night sky at Aleenta Phuket-Phang Nga and release the endangered leatherback turtles with us on the pristine sands of Natai Beach, at our annual fundraising event. A silent auction for contributions to assist us continue our work preserving and building the turtle population for now and future generations to come will also be a highlight of the evening.

Tickets are B2,222 net per person including all food and drink. The evening starts at 7pm. Please book now, as availability is limited at help@purebluefoundation.com.

Going to Surin Beach?

If you have time this week head to Sea Breeze Surin Beach for a great lunch time offer. We are doing any of our burgers with homecut fries for only B175 between 12pm and 5pm every day. For expats we are also offering B20 off beverages all day, every day - ask a manager when you arrive. Live sport every day including our 100” HD screen. Ask about our new pool club, plus kids and adults parties planned and catered for. Call 076 270 399, www. thebestbeachclub.com, info@theburger barandbeachclub.com.

The Phuket News

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

20 TIME OUT

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

TELL US WHERE THIS IS AND WIN!

GOT YOUR NUMBER

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

GERRY’S VIEW

50,000

THIS WEEK’S HINT: “This compilation of pictures was taken at one of Phuket Town’s best museums, established in 2010 in a former school.

“To the Chinese, the red bat with its spread wings symbolises an open book and an opportunity to study.

“The 200 baht entrance fee is value for money as the museum is a storehouse of 13 rooms exhibiting the life history of one of Phuket’s most successful settler communities.”

The number of earthquakes that take place on Earth in an average year.

8,000

Number of people in a year who injure themselves using a toothpick.

24

–Gerry Cummings editor@thephuketnews.com

Age at which William Pitt the Younger be­ came Prime Minister of Britain in 1783

5

www.photohutgroup.com

Millions of bacteria found, on average, on a square centimetre of human skin.

thephuketnews.com/ login-game-view.php

GUESS THE CORRECT LOCATION AND WIN A B500 GIFT VOUCHER FROM PHOTO HUT

Congratulations to John Silke and Rune Hyll Krantz, who both correctly identified last week’s photo as being a distant shot of Patong, taken from the Kalim end of the bay.

This week in history ■■ November 9, 1989 The Berlin Wall falls as East Germany opens checkpoints in the barrier, allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany.

■■ November 10, 1971 In Cambodia, Khmer Rouge forces attack the capital, Phnom Penh and its airport, killing 44, wounding at least 30.

■■ November 11, 1992 The necessary two thirds of the members of the General Synod of the Church of England vote to allow women to become priests.

Across

Down

1.

1.

2.

6.

1. Where would you wear an epaulette?

2. How many red balls are on the table at the start of a frame of snooker?

3. If it is noon in Phuket, what time is it in Paris?

4. Which Phuket water creature is related to the elephants?

5. How old is Justin Bieber?

Answers at the foot of the page.

9.

10.

12.

13.

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17.

SUDOKU

■■ November 12, 1927 Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in control of the Soviet Union.

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Unsurpassed copy not as much. (9) Ritzy way to express Southern hope. (5) Lion call after rising?

Chaos. (6) Rome and Yale scrambled sea beast.

(5,3) The method whereby Injun greets. (3) Jog child with hand in.

(4) I left; applies for fruit. (6) A ran back. Smart, but chaotic. (8) Lion’s offspring took her little angel! (6) Place to stay: rather more than hotel. (6) Sell and French “thank you” causes feud. (8) Money incorporated ring and me. (6) Call her a goddess? (4) He takes the French pole. (3) Instructive, did take action to be in charge.

(8) Bend gravity and a country. (6) Artery, note, or thanks.

(5) Ma and right male take commercial jam. (9)

3.

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■■ November 13, 1841 James Braid first sees a demonstration of animal magnetism, which leads to his study of the subject he eventually calls hypnotism.

Ho hum… swat mixed cleanser. (9) With up, vomited; with out, discarded. (5) Ah! The care fixed deep sadness.

(9) Please, a bit for each. (2) Direction of cow sound – not fast.

(4) 1,000 in exchange of bog. (5) Concept to the left of perfect. (5) Ha! The Spanish saints’ headgear.

(5) Architectural style is ironic, but not right. (5) It’s a B, see? No, first three! (1,1,1) Author takes exercise around the ring. (3) Oh! Sounds like French liquid. (3) As to the point, he’s a fool. (3) Handy gear to make into plant. (9) Right at vermin. (3) Clever chap has hairdo and idea. (9) Country for you old chaps. (5) Confess to being in possession… (3) …almost took as well. (3) Not quite the truth about sodium hydroxide. (3) In Diana, a state. (5) A hundred and one take the German drink. (5) Java from 23 down. (5) Island network. Thanks. (5) An old country cardinal, I am. (4) Part of address for medic. (2)

■■ November 14, 1889 Female journalist Nellie Bly begins her attempt to travel round the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72.

Solutions to last week’s puzzles:

Answers to this week’s Pop Quiz: 1. On your shoulder; 2. Fifteen; 3. 6 am; 4.The dugong; 5. 18.

WEEKDAYS

SATURDAYS

SUNDAYS

Breakfast

Sam & Natasha

7am-11am

Weekend Brunch

Jay Le Shark

10am - 1pm

Weekend Brunch

Jay Le Shark

10am – 1pm

The Power Hour with Radenska Natural Water

Live 89.5

11am-12pm

Phuket News Radio

Live 89.5

1pm - 2pm

The Spin

Tim Newton

1pm - 4pm

Jason Wilder

4pm - 7pm

Live 89.5

7pm - 8pm

Live 89.5

8pm – 11pm

Lifestyle

Steve Johnston

12pm-3pm

Saturday Sport

Sam Clarke

2pm - 5pm

Drive

Jason Wilder

3pm-7pm

Going Green

Nick Anthony

5pm – 7pm

Lazy Sunday Afternoon Phuket News Radio (repeat)

Non Stop Music

Live 89.5

7pm-7am

Saturday Night Fever

Live 89.5

7pm – 11pm

Sunday Night Chill

The Phuket News

■■ November 15, 1859 The first modern revival of the Olympic Games takes place in Athens, Greece and includes running, discus, wrestling, and jumping.

SALA Phuket Resort and Spa

IN HOTEL ROOMS ALL ACROSS THE ISLAND NEW LOG

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NEW LOGO THE PHUKET NEWS

THE PHUKET

NEWS

FRIDAY, NOV

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2012

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Runaway mother returns for her abandoned infant

BRin ITISH Paris T

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FULL STORY ON PAGE 2 FULL STO RY

info@tile-asia.com | www.tile-asia.com | Phuket

Showroom : Wana Park, Srisoonthorn Road,

Thalang, Phuket 83110 | Tel 076 620 168 | Fax

”

ON PAG E3

076 620 169.

thephuketnews.com thephuketnew

s.com

and many more....

PHUKET'S BEST NEWSPAPER IS IN PHUKET'S BEST HOTELS

16 CLASSIFIEDS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Jobs

Single house special price Fully furnished with teakwood furniture > 20

classifieds@thephuketnews.com

3 years experience. Email: admin@patongheming ways.com.

Sala Phuket Jobs Vacancy: -Purchasing Manager: 1 Position -Chief Engineering 1 Position -Spa Therapist 4 Positions -Reservation Officer: 1 Position Contact 076 338 888.

Email: pncphuket@sala phuket.com.

Bartender and Waitress Needed:

Tw o G r a p h i c Designers Wanted: SPIKEMEDIA is a

Lounge Bar opening in November: 2 bartenders, 2 waitresses, 1 maid/ helper English speaking, some experience, good looking and good attitude to service. Better if from hotel industry. Offering: salary according with experience, good tips, one meal, uniform, one day off. Email: laterrazzaphuket@hotmail. com. 084 509 1975.

creative media agency based in Phuket working for a variety of national and international clients.

We are seeking full-time Graphic Designers, to work on a diverse range of print and web design projec t s. Salar y de pending on experience and talent level. Please send CV and some s amp l e s of wo r k to: info@spikemediagroup. com.

Administrative Assistant: Thai nationality.

Plumbers Required: Plumbers/labourers wanted, Thai or expat (must have work permit). Total Water Solutions are a small p l u m b i n g /c o n s t r u c t i o n company based in Chalong we are urgently seeking workers. Khun Aoy at 086 940 7205.

Air Con/Refrig Tech- Excellent English is a must. nician: Looking for a Computer literate (Office,

technician with experience in electrics, air or refrig (compressors), for servicing, repairing and maintaining equipment. Competitive salary and bonuses. Call 084 915 9507.

Excel, Word, Internet).

Please send CV in English.

Email: lola2605@gmail. com.

Pizza Maker / Cook: Full time! (only Thai app l i c a nt s) w w w. p h u ket adventureminigolf.com, contact Khun Decha 0 8 0 5 4 8 3 3 4 5 , e m a i l: manager@phuket adventureminigolf.com.

Russian Guest Relation: Russian guest Phuket Brasserie Jobs Recuitment: -Waitress 5 Positions.

-Bartender 2 Positions.

Salary B9,000. Service sharge B4,000. If you worked in hotels before will be an advantage. Contact 076 210 511.Send CV and photo to linkwanjai@me.com.

Tw o Te c h n i c i a n s Wanted: Technical Certificate, ages 25-50. Two years experience, salary, competency-based pay, full time/part time, be able to work at up-country. Call 076 323 043, email: juicyfx@ yahoo.com.

Sales Staff Wanted: English-speaking female.

Thai with previous selling experience with own car, outgoing personality with ability to sell to farangs, flexible hours. Retainer, fuel, phone and commission. Call Khun Nam: 076 272 702. Island Curtains.

Class Act Media is southern Thailand's most comprehensive media company, incorporating Phuket’s leading English newspaper ‘The Phuket News’, Phuket’s leading English radio station ‘Live 89.5, a host of publications & services including ‘The Phuket Colouring book’, ‘The Southern Sun Samui & ‘Phuket Ticket Master’. We are currently seeking

Full Time Public Relations/ Marketing manager to handle: ● PR and marketing of our products & services ● Identifying sponsorship opportunities & liaising with event organizers ● Building relationships with local organizations, government & private companies The applicant must have:● Thai National ● Excellent personal skills ● Good command of English ● Experience in PR/Marketing in print media or radio would be an advantage but not essential ● Existing relationships/network of contacts in Phuket an advantage ● Own car & ability to work flexible hours and attend events during non-work hours

We offer:● Competitive salary & bonuses depending ● 5 day work week – (Monday – Friday 8.30 am – 6 pm) ● Friendly work environment & excellent progress opportunities ● Time in lieu policy for any overtime hours worked

Interested applicants are invited to apply by sending a full resume in English with a recent photo & expected salar to: info@thephuketnews.com

Class Act Media Co., Ltd.

99/7 Moo 1 T. Kathu A. Kathu Phuket 83120 Tel: 076 612 550-2 ext 100 Fax: 076 612 553

www.thephuketnews.com

The Phuket News

Class Act Media is southern Thailand's most comprehensive media company, incorporating Phuket’s leading English newspaper ‘The Phuket News’, Phuket’s leading English radio station ‘Live 89.5, a host of publications & services including ‘The Phuket Colouring book’, ‘The Southern Sun Samui & ‘Phuket Ticket Master’. We are currently seeking

Sales Manager

Thai or Foreigner (Located in Phuket)

Responsibilities :

● Managing the sales team (including responsibility for recruitment of new sales staff when needed) ● Weekly & monthly sales budget meetings and reporting ● Developing and following up new sales leads ● Reaching own personal sales targets and responsibility for reaching team targets

We offer: ● Competitive salary, bonuses and travel expenses ● Friendly work environment ● Social security (10%) paid by the company ● Excellent career progress opportunity ***The company may offer accommodation plus local transportation costs to successful candidates.***

Interested candidates are invited to send application with full resume in English indicating qualifications, experience, expected salary with recent photo via email to adminmgr@thephuketnews.com or post to below address.

Class Act Media Co., Ltd.

99/7 Moo 1 T. Kathu A. Kathu Phuket 83120 Tel: 076 612 550-2 ext 100 Fax: 076 612 553 adminmgr@thephuketnews.com

relation is needed at The Imperial Adamas Beach Resort, Phuket.

The position is available now. Please send your CV and actual photo to e l ye s .b @ i m p e r i a l adamas.com.

Instructor for a Wake Park: Wanted a wakeboarding/ water ski instructor. Male/female. Native Russian language speaker.

Fluent English. Permanent location at Phuket.

Please send CV to phuket wakepark1@gmail.com.

Executive Chef Wanted: Minimum 4-5 years Mobile Car Rental experience, must have exis hiring !: Rapidly ex- perience in food quality and panding car rental company is hiring new staff members. Required: good English knowledge, driving license, independent thinking, positive attitude, computer skills. Call us !

081 970 5204.

Clothes shop staff wanted: Blackbird shop, 6 days per week full time or part time. Must speak at least basic level English. Contact 084 676 6663 (Thai and English).

cost control, developing menus and recipes. Please send CV and references in Thai or English to jazon@ headstartphuket.com.

Office Staff Wanted: Female, English-speaking staff to work in nice environment with outgoing personality and basic bookkeeping skills. Call K. Nam 076 272 702. Island Curtains.

Administrative Assistant: Thai, degree in

Finance Manager: Admin or equivalent, good This position per for ms high - level professional level accounting work and is responsible for the preparation of the company’s financial statements and reports. CPA preferred Min.

written and spoken English, basic accounting, experience a must. Salary based on qualifications.

Send resume to: officemanager@techworx.asia or call 081 080 3773.

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

CLASSIFIEDS 17

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

List your ad for FREE at thephuketnews.com/classifieds.php Office Assistant Needed: Small dynamic and friendly real estate agency company based in Chalong, Phuket working for national and international clients.

We are seeking full-time assistant with administrative skills and outgoing personality.

Food & Beverage Manager: Experience Resor t F&B manager proactive and motivated with passion for high qualit y ser vice stan dards. This is a hands on operational role. Send CV to recruit@paresa resorts.com.

Business Coordinator Hotel: Urgently wanted. Responsible for hotel relationship management and optimisation, as well as new account acquisition in order to expand our room supply network. Send CV to jobs@hoteltravel.com.

Web/Graphic Designers Wanted: Degree in Arts Graphic Design. Proven experience in creating, designing and maintaining websites. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, CSS,HTML/ DHTML & Design Principals. Send CV to jobs@ hoteltravel.com.

DaVinci Restaurant in Nai Harn: Thai nationality only. Waitresses 2 positions, Bartender 1 position. Experience and good English will be an advantage. Good salary and benefits. Contact Khun Jana 086 947 5197, jana@davinciphuket. com.

Experienced in selling real estate is advantage. Thai National, excellent English spoken and written is a must.

Computer literate (Office, Excel, Word, Internet).Salary based on qualifications. Send resume, photo and expected salary to: sales@18excelsior-property.com, welcome walk-in candidates. www.18excelsior-property.com. restaurant is looking for a experienced Thai cook.

Must work under pressure, team player and with good organisation skills. Working hours 11.00-22.00. Good tips. Please contact 086 940 4801.

lish speaking and writing, male preferred) room maid, room boy, cleaner, technical engineer. Care@ bydlofts.com.

Reser vation and O p e r a t i o n: A b l e t o speak English. Experience

Thai Waiter Wanted: Restaurant Manager in tour operator / reserThai and Western restau- Wa nt e d: Re st au r a nt rant is looking for a experienced waiter, male or female, motivated with good selling skills. Must speak an d un de r st an d f lu e nt English.Good tips shared.

Please contact 086 940 4801.

JOBS IN PHUKET Villa Maintenance Manager: Luxury Villa Management Company requires Western Villa Maintenance Manager. Must be fluent in both English and Thai, and have extensive maintenance/ construction experience.

Some hotel operations experience would also be beneficial. High level of responsibility. Flexible hours.

Applicant must have current driving license and vehicle.

CV to : hr@phuketvillasandhomes.com, 087 881 0003. vation would be a benefit but not necessary. Able to work on shift. Able to use Microsoft Outlook. Contact 076 381 703.

Gif t Shop Sales Staff Wanted: Six days per week. Must speak English. Email: elliehardy@hotmail.com or call 080 781 8162.

Classroom Teacher Needed: For nurser y

school. Qualified, patient, dedicated teacher needed to teach children aged between 1-5 years. 3 positions available. Email: info@ smiley-kidz.com.

House maid: Looking for a Thai national maid to work in Chalong. English speaking welcome. Contact 082 806 1695.

manager / accounting with experience managing restaurant, accounting, managing staff and Ser ving Customers. 087 471 1351

We are looking for key members: Restaurant manager, execu-

Thai Cook-Sous Chef tive chef, waiter / waitress, Wanted: Thai/Western guest service agent (Eng-

The Phuket News

18 CLASSIFIEDS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Buy&Sell

Rawai home for sale

A two bedroom extended bungalow > 20 a look at Chicky Net, the online social network for (expat) women living in Thailand with over 2,400 members. info@ chickynet.com.

BOATS & YACHTS

Phuket Cooking Academy: Offers many

Natural Mountain Stone: Original from an-

Park on Srisoonthorn Rd. Phuket’s quality tile boutique. Tiles for interior, exterior, residential, commercial. Contact 076 620 168 or 081 424 2828. Email info@ tile-asia.com.

cient time. Shaped by expert craftsman. Unique with its texture and colours. Harmony with traditional and contemporary. Commit to best and always available to our valued customers. Call +66 (08) 1719 6930. Email: info@maxxnova.com

CARS FOR RENT Car for rent: Car in good condition, shor t and longterm rental with first-class insurance and delivery service. 086 690 6007, email: k.niwatt@hotmail.com.

Timber Boat for Sale:

BUSINESSES FOR SALE

CHILDCARE Choochuay Trading Group: Specialised in designing, sales, installing and repairing large commercial cooling systems and heating systems and small residential air-conditioning systems. Contact 076 319 406-8, see choochuay.com.

Indo Construction: 40 years’ experience and more than 20 years at your service in Thailand. Main contractor: study project, architecture design and construction and management. Please contact 076 381 895.

Farang Food Paradise: Sell Freelance Company: Sell freelance (Diver.OK) company B40,000.

Call 086 280 9282 Marc.

The Phuket News

Your specialist of imported food and drinks in Phuket.

Visit our shop at the Billion Plaza, opposite Tesco Lotus.

Contact: 076 612 733, 076 248 900. www.phuketfood.com.

Come to learn how to cook with our professional chefs and discover the art of bakery, and Thai and European cuisines.

Singapore Club Phuket: Calling all Singa-

Ski boat for sale: Glas-

Tile It: Thalang. Wana

cooking and baking classes in our top-class professional facilities.

CLUBS & MEMBERSHIPS

BUSINESS SERVICES

14m traditional timber boat for sale. Extensive work has already been c om pleted with the hull. Needs further work for installing, engine, fuel / water tanks, decking and upper deck.

The owner has invested B800,000 in construction and is selling due to other more urgent business projects. Genuine enquiries only. The boat is located near Sarasin bridge. For inspection, please contact for an appointment. All reasonable offers will be considered. Contact 084 294 6039, sladepeter@yahoo. com.

COOKING CLASS

Spa At FunStart for Sale: Well established spa for sale B95,000. For more details contact K.Bee call: 081 970 8130 or chalerm siri@gmail.com.

tron Carlson design, Thai registered, 120-ltr fuel tank, 200Hp Yamaha engine in excellent condition. Includes trailer, boat cover, wakeboard pole, ropes and ski equipment. Call 081 894 5822, email: markbreitis@ gmail.com.

come along and join the action.

Tel 076 354 027, 087 275 3614. www.clubasiaphuket.com.

Buds Nursery: Phuket’s oldest bilingual international childcare facility. High-quality, time-proven schedule and curriculum. Now in brand new purpose-built school.

Experienced native English teachers to teach ages 1.5-8. Monday-Friday. 8am -5pm. Bus service available from Patong, Karon, Kata, Phuket, Rawai and Chal ong. Website: www.buds-phuket.com.

CHILDREN’S CLUB FunStart: Family sports and leisure club. Swimming/ golf/playcentre/gaming arcade. Contact 076 203 185, 087 882 5544. See funstart phuket.com.

poreans in Phuket to join Singapore Club Phuket. Contact Robin on 081 803 7189.

Cl u b A s i a Fi t n e s s: Royal Phuket Cit y H otel.

Ad ve r t i s e t o E x p a t Offers Zumba/LesMills classWomen: Are you looking to es/ weight training /sauna / promote your business to expat women in Thailand? Have

steam/swimming pool, all inclusive. For a free trial workout,

Open to all from the age of 12 years old and without any prior cooking experience. For more info visit us at: www.phuket-cookingacademy.com or call 081 821 40 64.

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

CLASSIFIEDS 19

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

List your advert for FREE at thephuketnews.com/classifieds.php MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS FOR SALE Health Food: Online health food in Thailand. Good Karma, all natural, healthy, and organic products. Please contact 082 276 1675, www.good karmathailand.com.

Techworx: Custom design & installation. Professional service and support. Premium service: home cinema, home automation, marine AV and IT, lighting control and multiroom audio-video. Call 084 443 9863.

MOTORBIKE SERVICES

MOVING & STORAGE

just B500 per hour. Visit us at www.keepfitphuket.com.

Sound Engineer! AV Home system! : We’re

Dynamic Tyre Balancing: Dynamically balance your motorcycle tires for a smoother ride with DYNA BEADS! Available at West Coast Service Center Phuket, your big bike specialist on the bypass road. Contact 085 785 4440.

Baan Cananga Spa Products: We use traditional organic Thai herbs and make quality homemade spa products, cosmetic and OTOP health and beauty products. Shop: Kata Night Plaza and Raya Beauty Rawai Sai Yuan.

Call 081 979 3504 Khun Wan.

exper ts in systems and control designs of highest quality: Home automation, AV, cinema room, lighting control. Professional services certified by CEDIA. English speaking call +66 (0 8) 1719 6 93 0. Email: info@max xnova.com, www.maxxnova.com

STORAGE Self Storage you can buy quality moving and packing supplies like individual boxes, bubble wrap, packing tapes & knives plus secure padlocks. We also help you to move and store.

Call 076 292 909.

of successful business man.

Gambler, playboy, world traveler now living Patong Beach.

Email: penthouse2102@gmail. com.

Safeway Storage: Self storage from B800/M. Container rental B3,000/M. Sales/ site of f ice A /C B6,0 0 0/M. Mobile toilets B2,80 0/M month. Chalong, opposite Wat Chalong. Thalang, main highway. Contact 076 313 235 or 081 125 1873.

PERSONAL SERVICES

producer of premium coffee blends and powdered mixes as well as selling, maintaining, servicing and repairing all major brands. Contact: 076 355 600-1.

Haris & Hawr yluck Attorneys at Law: Unit 6D CCM Complex. Call 076 510 111, email: info@hhlegal advisors.com, www.hhlegal advisors.com.

Backgammon: Players Wanted. Tel: 081 577 8443, email: phuketconnection@ yahoo.com

Personal Trainer: Fully-qualified female personal trainer from the UK. With guaranteed results and over 10 years of experience in men and women’s health and fitness. Pre- and post-natal exercise. Nutrition and weight management. For a free consultation, contact Sarah on 084 985 8161, email: sarah@ one2one-fitness.net.

Live Music By Colin Hill: Popular expat professional musician (guitar/vocals) with work permit. Can perform solo, duo or band. www.play guitar.net 089 777 3063.

Phuket Visa: Offers consulting and services on company registration, work permit, visa, accounting, auditor, legal advice. Contact 081 892 9960.

Personal Training from Home: Launch price special. Keep Fit Phuket is offering half price personal training sessions to anyone that books before 1st December 2012 -

ber one supplier of Italian deli in Phuket. Call 076 384 273 , e m a i l i nf o @ b u o n a p petitogroup.com, www.buon appetito group.com.

English-Russian Translations: Professional translator specialized in translation of contracts and agreements in real estate field, web sites and tourist information. Email: malaikaya@yahoo.com.

Ghost Writer: For life story

Bon Café Phuket: A We Sell Boxes & Moving Supplies: At MY

BUY & SELL IN PHUKET

• Movement • Stillness • Balance M obile:0 81-728 - 9 9 8 0 Email: Serenethai@yahoo.com

Buon A pp et i to: D e li mar ket and bi st r o. N um -

Atmanjai: World’s best natural health programmes to improve health, reduce stress, weight loss, detox, rejuvenation, vitality and overcome disease. See atmanjai.com.

FriendsBandMusic Entertainment: Our services: Live band, music system rental, Thai classical dance, Thai folk band, MC and DJ. Call Khun Sathit on 080 524 1698, email sathit@friendsband music.com. www.friendsband music.com.

Pro t e c t Yo u r H o m e with CCTV: CCTV & alarm service. Protect your home with high-quality CCTV camera and GSM alarm. Free sur vey and quote. Please call 086 105 8144 or visit: www.huketechnology.com.

PET ADOPTION Why buy a pet?: Soi D o g Fo un dat i o n h ave over 300 beautiful dogs and puppies available for adoption. Fully vaccinated and sterilised. Contact 085 574 4258 or email: cindy@soidog.org.

Are You Thinking Of Getting A New Dog Or Puppy?: Please consider adopting a homeless dog, rather than buying from a pet shop or puppy mill.

Contact: Gone2thedoggies@ gmail.com If you’re interested in seeing some of the many dogs looking for a new home.

PET HOSPITAL Chaofah Pet Hospital: 8/28–29 Moo 9, Chaofah East Road. Contact 076 283 365.

Public Notice Disemployment

Public Notice Disemployment

Anda Focus Co., Ltd. Want to announce

Anda Focus Co., Ltd. Want to announce

Peerawath Noipum

That Mr. Peerawath Noipum position GM will not be employed

by Anda Focus effective Novemver 01, 2012 and hence will no longer represent the organization and that he is no longer authorized to submit or perform services on its behalf.

Montita Boonlertlop

That Ms. Montita Boonlertlop position Clerk will not be employed by Anda Focus effective November 01, 2012 and hence will no longer represent the organization and that she is no longer authorized to submit or perform services on its behalf.

If you find any mis representation or unauthorized activity, please contact us immediately at 081 956 8997

If you find any mis representation or unauthorized activity, please contact us immediately at 081 956 8997

Anda Focus will not be responsible for any

Anda Focus will not be responsible for any

association or transactions conducted by the said employee after this announcement.

association or transactions conducted by the said employee after this announcement.

The Phuket News

20 CLASSIFIEDS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Property

Pool villa in Marina

Ready to move in, three bedrooms > 21

081 270 4291, email: thailand mls@gmail.com.

Allamanda (Laguna) Residences/Phuket:

PROPERTY FOR RENT Beach front pool villa for rent/ sale. 3 bedrooms, furnished.

Contact Siriporn on 089 649 9939.

One condo unit, half of a deluxe twin house, fully furnished and equipped, set direct on the picturesque lagoon with balcony right over it. 3 bedrooms each w i t h s h owe r/ b at h r o o m, roof terrace. Long term rent or sale. 081 737 0365, utaipan@yahoo.com.

PROPERTY FOR SALE

Surin Beach Office For Rent: Prime location

fully renovated sales office/ shop with initial lease of 6 years. Internal area 144 m2, walled back garden 60 m2, 4 parkings, 3 phase, kitchen, internet, phone/ fax, TV, 5 AC. Contact 085 060 0033.

Pool Villa in Marina:

Office for rent Patong Tower: 3 Offices for rent

on 5th floor of Patong Tower, close to beach, post office, Jungceylon. 69 sq.metre: B3 4,500 per month. 10 6 s q . m e t r e: B 5 3 , 0 0 0 p e r m o n t h . 12 6 s q . m e t r e: B63,0 0 0 per month. 076 341 369-71.

Phuket Condominium for Rent (KFA61): B13 , 2 0 0 - B18 ,15 0 per night. 3 Bedrooms, 4 Bathrooms. Unit Size: 412 sq.metre. Short term and Long term. Maximum is 6 people. Ms.Laddawan - CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) 076 239 967/085 661 0623.

Commercial Building For Sale: 5 metre x 18.30 metre, three floors, located close by condo at Saiyuan, two big halls, two bedrooms, four bathrooms, clean and new building.

Negotiable price. For more details please call 087 881 7979, 081 472 0770, email: ss.kijrungruang@gmail.com.

Commercial Building for sale: Prime location in Shop Front for Rent: The Royal Phuket Yacht Club shop front space for rent 4.34 M. x 4.37 M. located on the first floor of a great looking area for retail shop, boutique etc. Call 076 380 200 ext. 601 Khun Naphat.

Beach Front Cottage for Rent: Chalong beachKathu Two Bedroom Two Bathroom Furnished for Rent: Two

aircons, TV, telephone line, ADSL / WiFi, washing machine, hot water shower, parking for two cars, nice mattress, storage. Near Loch Palm. Thai: Call 088 705 3237, Eng: Please SMS 089 973 327.

front cottage. One bedroom.

Call Siriporn 089 649 9939, email: siri_phuket@chang runner.com.

One + Two Home’s for Sale with AC Rawai:

House for Rent-Kathu: Ret ail Spac e O p portunity: Large international resort in Karon seeks retail tenant. Excellent year round occupancy.

Flexible rental terms. Must sell quality merchandise.

Khun Boonchu call 076 396 200–5, fcckr@chr.co.th.

The Phuket News

Two b e dr o o ms / t wo bat h rooms. Calm and clean area.

Built in early 2012, first occupant. Aircon in all rooms. Floor area 120 m2 + back and front yard, furnished. Contact 091 034 0035.

Rawai Beachfront Pool Villa Rent/Sale: Rawai

The Billion Plaza and main road to Patong. Building 80sqm + 6m of patio behind. 4 storey, 4 bathroom, chanote title. Sale by owner, price B13.8m. 081 807 9914.

Loft Style Flats for Rent: Central location with easy access to main roads, near Bang Wat dam Country Park in the middle of the island. The area is quiet, minimal traffic, great walking and running around the dam. Call 086 664 5575.

Main home: two bed, extended bungalow with outside kitchen, shower and seating salas set in mature, walled, private gardens. Own well, tanks and pumps. Sold, furnished. Will sleep 8+ can be sold with a 30-year land lease for non Thai.

Price B5.5 nego: Mobile: Eng 082 416 0150. 3BB WiFi internet also.

Ready to move in, single storey pool villa with 3 bedroom situated in the impressive Park Residence sector of Boat Lagoon Marina. Impressively constructed along a modern Asian theme. 076 238 948, email : marketing@ phuketpropertytrip.com.

Rawai Pool Villa: Unique three bedroom pool villa “off the plan” in Rawai. Three easy payments over eight months build time. Overlooking a peaceful, fish-filled lake. Valued at B12 million on completion. Save millions. Contact

Furnished House for Sale Phuket Villa 5: 3 bedroom house with furniture, close to Kajonkiet School. Secure area, Cul De Sac, nice gardens, two bathrooms. B3,500,000 negotiable. Details 081 370 8114 (Thai) 087 889 3838 (Eng), email:davidgem98@ hotmail.com.

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

CLASSIFIEDS 21

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

List your advert for FREE at thephuketnews.com/classifieds.php

PROPERTY IN PHUKET

House in Phuket Town / Samkong 3 bedroom, 3 bathrooms: Semi detached house with large 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, large open living/dining area and entertainment deck outside. Large western kitchen with all appliances.

Great area very conveniently located 5 minutes from all amenities including both international hospitals, Central Festival, international schools and the centre of town. Selling due to relocation.

Phuket Cottages

Near British International School, pool-villas starting from THB 8,800,000.

www.phuket-cottages.com

Call: 089-724-7211

Priced to sell at B4.3M including 4 air cons. and all modern style furniture. Nothing more to spend. Contact (English): 084 768 0536 or (Thai): 085 888 0502.

PROPERTY FOR SALE CONT.

Golf Course Land For Sale: Near Brit-

Amazing Sea View Penthouse: Panoramic

Single House Special Price B9.5million: Nice house full furnished with teakwood furniture, ready to move in. 240 sqm. 4 bed 4 bath, closed to Kathu waterfall and market. Near Loch Palm, major stores, BIS and KIS. Call Oranwan 086 883 3169.

sea view, mountain view and Big Buddha. 310 sq.metre, 2 beds, 2 baths with option to convert in 3 beds. Contact: Izzy +66(0)86 278 8300 or izzy.serenitygroup@gmail. com.

Condominium At The Point: Condo for sale,

Rawai B eachf ront Pool Villa Sale/Rent: Rawai Beach front pool villa for rent/sale. 3 bedrooms, furnished. Contact Siriporn on 089 649 9939.

ish Inter School, 17 Rai with public road access.

S ui t a b l e f o r r e s o r t o r housing project. Can be divided. Price: B4.5 MB per Rai. Contact owner 0 8 9 7 24 7 211, e m a i l: julien@phuketimmo.com.

The Point opposite Big C, freehold, chanote, studio 36sq metre. Fully furnished include AW fittings and inventory. Nice views from 6th floor, close to Lotus, Big C, Central Festival Etc. Only B2,695,000 negotiable. Call 087 889 3838, Skype: davidpaul49, email: davidgem98@hotmail.com.

Land At Kathu For Sale: Only 15 minutes to Patong and only 10 minutes to Phuket Town, located at Kathu, total 141 Square wah or 564 Square metre with ready Public utility. Call 081 892 0610,081 472 0770, tan_ohio@hotmail.com.

House on The Corner for Sale: Quiet location

Opportunity Knocks: B24,500,000. Deceased Estate - Absolute waterfront.

Occupying a stunning location on the east coast of Phuket this five-level villa has panoramic sea views from every level. Renovation work required. 085 793 2667. See exotiqproperty. com. Ref AB-V453, email: dmuir@exotiq.com.

Golf View Villa For Sale: Near British International School, state-ofthe-art villa overlooking the Loch Palm Golf Course: 4 bedrooms + maid’s room; 485 m2 built on 1,860 m2 land. B28million. Contact owner 089 724 7211.

and only 500m from the main road. Thepkrasattri, Heroines Monument.

70sqw x 280sqm, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, big living room with open-plan kitchen (9x9m), 1 separated kitchen, carpark for 3 cars and a small storehouse, 2 aircons, cable TV, 1 phone line TT&T. Price: B3.5 million including fur niture.

Excl. furniture B2,995,000.

Must see! Email: jochenschmitz16@gmail. com. Call 081 607 8000.

7.5 M House and Pool Bypass Rd: Very clean 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house with 5 x 10 metre pool 10 minutes south of Central Festival, walking distance to Kajonkiet Bilingual School.

To see: 083 301 3470, email: wpdrake@hotmail.com.

Phuket Apar tment for Sale (PKS0796): B12,000,000. 2 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms. Unit Size: 118.35 sq.metre. Pets: Not allowed. Legal Ownership: Leasehold. Ms.Prakaipeth - CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) 076 239 967/081 538 6879.

Rawai Half Rai for Sale: Land plot 100 metres to Rawai Beach, about 850 sq.metre. Chanote title deed, private road with sewer, 3 phases electricity and wall around the land. Contact rawai.steen@gmail.com, call 080 530 6880.

Beachfront land for sale: 2 Rai absolute amazing beachfront, few min. boat ride from Phuket, facing west to sunset and views of Phuket. B13 million per rai +66(0)86 278 8300 or izzy. serenitygroup@gmail.com.

Land for Sale - in Marina: Design and build your own home with good location and gated community.

All the infrastructure you need is available such as water, underground cabling for power, telephone, ADSL internet etc.

Contact 076 238 948, email: marketing@phuketproperty trip.com.

Condominium in Pa t o n g f o r S a l e: Less than 1 Km from the beach, large 2-bedroom apartment with communal swimming pool and balcony. FREEHOLD (can be foreign owned). 7.5MB. Contact owner 089 724 7211 or julien@phuket immo.com.

Hill Land for Sale: Very nice location hill land by the Bangwat Dam, total 60 Rai, 96,000 square metre.

Contact: Attapong 081 892 0610 (Thai), Jantiwa 081 890 8268 (Eng). e-mail: jantiwa_ j@hotmail.com.

The Phuket News

22 CLASSIFIEDS

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

EQUIPMENT SALES & RENTAL

HOME IMPROVEMENT

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liberto@construction-thailand.com 40 years experience of more than 20 years at your service in Thailand.

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Specialized in large commercial and small residential cooling & heating systems.

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MARINE SERVICES

SWIMMING POOLS

w w w. e m

p ir e p o o ls p h u k e t . c o m

1,800 baht pool service

for the first 20 customers (standard size pool)

19/43, 19/45 Moo 7,Srisoontorn Rd, T. Srisoontorn, A. Thalang, Phuket 83110.

Tel: 076-620113 or 084-8506140 Fax: 076-620015

The Phuket News

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

PHUKET SPORT 23

Phuketian racer back on track MOTORSPORTS

P The four-team competition incluced three age divisions.

Tournament sees Phuket Soccer School play it cool FOOTBALL SEVERAL TEAMS MET at Thanyapura Sports and Leisure Club last week for a four-team training tournament in three age divisions.

Teams from Phuket Soccer School Academy, Kajonkiet FC, Bang Jo, and Thalang all played in the Under-8, Under-10, and Under-12 divisions, with several particularly exciting games to watch.

PSS U12 Academy team played two matches, losing to Thalang in a heartbreaking 3-2 game and then drawing with Kajonkiet FC 0-0 in a game that they controlled almost from start to finish.

In the U10 tournament, PSS Academy’s Luke C scored three goals and earned Man of the Match honours in the final 2-0 win over Thalang.

They tied Kajonkiet FC 1-1 in the previous match.

Bang Jo defeated PSS Academy in the first match of the U8 tournament, coming back from a goal down to win 2-1. The PSS Academy team came back in a second match to defeat Kajonkiet FC 4-0. “[We were] delighted with the professionally run mini tournament at TSLC where all three age groups were competitive and closely matched,” said PSS Academy coach Martin Hill.

huket-based driver Dylan Young is looking to score big in the next race of the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship series later this month, especially after competing for the first time this year just two weeks ago.

Due to budget constraints, the Australian-native did not race until he found a sponsor in Singapore-based lifestyle brand Ku De Ta just in time for the series kick-off at the Air tel Indian For mula 1 Grand Prix on October 26.

“My on track preparation was fairly nonexistent leading into the event whilst others had been testing in Europe in the days leading up to the Indian F1 GP,” he said.

The 22-year-old, a veteran of Formula BMW Pacific and the JK Racing Asia Series, finished in 15th and 12th place respectively in the first two races of the series at the Buddh International Circuit

Dylan Young hopes to come out on top in late November. Photo: Kunal Khadse in New Delhi, India.

“I showed a lot of improvement as the weekend went on so I’m pumped for the next event at the end of November and am confident I can take another big step

forward.” Young said.

T he M R F C h al le nge Championships is a 10-race series played out over four weekends from October to February. The next race is scheduled for November 30

to December 2 at the same F1 track as the original two races. The series will conclude in Chennai in early February.

For more information, visit dylanyoungracing.com.

Worakorn Wongsakornmuang (second from left) won the Athletic Physique Open category.

More than 50 compete in Phuket’s first bodybuilding competition BODYBUILDING DOZENS CAME OUT TO witness the 1st Phuket Classic Bodybuilding Competition at Central Festival last Sunday (November 4), with over 50 bodybuilders vying for the top prizes.

With two divisions across six categories, the Phuket

Classic pitted bodybuilders across southern Thailand against each other and provided a stage for women’s national team athlete Wilaiporn Wannaklung.

In the Men’s Athletic Physique Open category, Worakorn Wongsakornmuang from Muscletech Thailand took home the top prize. In the Men’s Bodybuilding Under-21

category, Mahusen Jaisamut of Phuket Whey won, while Arinant Kaewtanong of The Gym won in the Under-70 kg category.

Other winners included Komsak Saewhong of Smart Gym Phuket winning the Over70 kg category, and Khuntan Puangptech of Muscletech Thailand claimed the Men’s Bodybuilding Open category.

The Phuket News

24 PHUKET SPORT

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Phuket cricket league gets ready for action Island Cricket Club

CRICKET

Captain: Anand Chand

Jean-Pierre Mestanza editor2@thephuketnews.com

he upcoming Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels Cricket League is shaping up to be one of the most interesting in recent memory, with several teams vying for a shot at the 35-over title.

With last year’s ‘Batsman of the Year’ Neil Culpan gone, the race for the individual title looks fierce as well.

Last year’s champions Laguna Cricket Club will look to defend their title against perennial contenders ICC and upset specialists TNT. Patong CC and the Village CC are also looking strong heading into the new season.

Let’s take a closer peek at what’s in store this season, which starts on November 18 at the Alan Cooke Ground.

Key players: Ali Khan (allrounder), Anand Chand (allrounder)

T

Patong Cricket Club Captain: Anthony Van Bleik

Five teams will vie for the coveted JLLH Cricket title with only one team coming out on top.

Key players: Richard Desmond (bowler), Sadarangani family Patong CC is one of the founding members of the PCG and looking for another trophy to add to their case.

The club has various members of the cricket-talented Sadarangani family at the helm and will look to utilise their offensive prowess to

smother teams.

Winning the title just two years ago, Patong CC longs for another day in the winner’s circle.

Laguna Cricket Club Captain: Stuart Reading Key players: Valentin Guiraud (all-rounder), Andrew Cole (batsman)

The reigning champions are looking strong heading into the new season.

The team added some extra hardware during the off-season with an Outrigger T20 title just a few months back.

Loss of personnel in key positions doesn’t look like it will slow this team down as the team look like clear favorites to be repeat champions.

ICC will look to make some noise this year after coming in third last season.

The deadly skills of captain Chand is something other teams need to constantly watch out for, as he is also a contender for the ‘Batsman of the Year’ title. A perennial contender, ICC also climbed to the Outrigger T20 finals and played a strong match. ICC hopes to keep that momentum going into the new season.

Village Cricket Club Captain: Kevin Quilty Key players: Justin White (all-rounder), Craig Patterson (bowler) They have raised their game over the years after their founding in 2007.

Making it to the finals last

year surprised many teams, but Village CC is keen to return to the finals again this year, especially with players like White and Patterson.

Former ‘Batsman of the Year’ Martin Foster (PCG’s second highest run scorer in one match) rounds out a talented offensive side.

Thanyapura News Tigers Captain: Barrie Buck Key players: Paul Lattimore (spin bowler), Barrie Buck (all-rounder) TNT finished second to last in their first year last season but look much stronger heading into 2012-2013. The team could play the role of spoiler for others looking to get into the finals this year.

Flying under the radar is never a bad thing, and TNT could use that advantage to pull off some upsets.

For more information, visit phuketcricketgroup.com

Media Coordinator Duncan Worthington, Phuket V-G Sommai Prijasilpa, and Kata Group Resorts Thailand President Pamuke Achariyachai in front of the King’s Cup trophy.

King’s Cup Regatta to generate B40 million for local economy in December SAILING THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED PHUKET King’s Cup Regatta is expected to bring in one of the biggest financial boons in the race’s 26-year history as sailors from over 35 countries will take to the water on some of the fastest racing vessels in Asia.

At a press conference this week, provincial officials iterated the importance of the event to the local economy, which rakes in close

The Phuket News

to B40 million tourists dollars for Phuket.

This year’s event, which takes place December 1 to 8, will bring back the windsurfing competition and feature some of Thailand’s best windwurfers including Ek Boonsawad, who competed in the 2012 London Olympics, and Siriporn Kaewduanggam, who won the 2010 Youth Olympics.

Spanish gold-medalist Marina Alabau Neira, who won at the 2012 Olympics, will also compete.

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

YFH players impress on trip to Germany FOOTBALL

T

wo players from the local Youth Football Home i mpr e s se d coaches during their training tour of professional German club Schalke 04 last month.

Seventeen year-old Wuttichai Sooksan and 15-year-old Phonlawat Nanta travelled to the club’s facilities in Gelsenkirchen, Germany for a twoweek training stint with the club’s youth academy from October 12 to 29.

“Both players impressed the coaches with their style.

They are young but play like grown men and their teammates trusted them with the ball right away,” said Hannu Tuukkanen, head coach at YFH, an orphanage that provides housing, education, and training to destitute youth.

The trip was a first for Wuttichai, a promising defender, who attracted interest from several smaller European clubs, who may sign the

SUPER SIX SOCCER Division 1

Team

P

W

D

L

F

GD

Pts

1

Morning Star

11

9

1

1

49

18

28

2

Phuket Condos & Homes

12

6

2

4

59

9

20

3

Shakers FC

11

6

2

3

36

7

20

4

Sweet Lemon FC

11

5

3

3

38

3

18

5

Joy Dive FC

9

4

1

4

40

15

13

6

Nanai Boys

12

3

2

7

42

-8

11

7

The Hulk

11

2

3

6

27

-18

9

8

PSU Alumni FC

11

2

0

9

29

-26

6

Division 2

Team

P

W

D

L

F

GD

Pts

1

Puensil FC

14

13

0

1

91

54

39

2

Pita Bar Phuketeers

12

11

1

0

79

49

34

3

Phuket Serenity Villas

14

8

2

4

59

13

26

4

Mr. Moo

13

8

0

5

63

12

24

5

Shambhala FC

13

6

3

4

72

13

21

6

Seduction

14

4

2

8

63

-19

14

7

Bat Fire

14

4

1

9

36

-17

13

8

Pluto Italian Ice Cream

13

4

0

9

56

-27

12

9

Atmanjai

14

2

2

10

45

-31

8

10

Thai Nee FC

13

1

1

11

38

-47

4

Southern Phuket Pool Team

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

1

Shaggy’s Bar

6

5

0

1

48

12

15

2

Pita Bar

6

3

3

0

34

16

11

3

Office Bar

6

3

1

2

27

33

10

(Left to right) Phonlawat Nanta and Wuttichai Sooksen trained with Schalke 04.

4

Mick’s Aussie Bar

6

1

3

2

27

33

6

5

Solutions Bar

5

1

2

2

26

26

5

young Thai to a professional contract sometime within the next year.

Meanwhile, the offensive prowess of young Thai midfielder Phonlawat was praised by Schalke 04 youth U17 and U19 coaches Jens

6

Walkabout Bar

5

1

2

2

20

30

5

7

JT’s Bar

4

1

0

3

15

25

3

8

Australia Bar & Grill

5

1

0

4

13

37

3

A Legs

Keller and Uwe Bein. This was Phonlawat’s second trip to Germany as he trained with VFB Stuttgart in 2010.

Currently, the duo are in Singapore to play in the Singa Cup U18 tournament.

“Within a few years, these

kids will be playing for professional clubs in Europe.

They are very talented and it’s bound to happen – they both played over 60 games including international tournaments so they have good experience so far,” Tuukkanen said.

FIFA drops Bangkok futsal stadium FUTSAL FOOTBALL’S GOVERNING body FIFA has forced Thailand to move the knockout stages of the Futsal World Cup from a purpose-built US$40 million (B1.2 billion) stadium after the venue failed safety tests.

A FIFA inspection team found the Bangkok Futsal Arena “will not be ready” to host the main games of the indoor football competition including the November 18 final.

Despite massive spending, the venue has been dogged by construction problems including a delay until late last week of the delivery of the wood flooring that makes up the pitch.

The quarter-final, semi-final and final matches will be

PHUKET/THAILAND SPORT 25

Beer Monster Team

P

W

D

L

F

1

Shaggys Bar

6

6

0

0

12

2

6

2

Mick’s Aussie Bar

6

5

0

1

11

5

5

3

Office Bar

6

4

0

2

10

6

4

4

Pita Bar

5

3

0

2

7

6

3

5

Solutions Bar

5

1

0

4

4

8

1

6

Walkabout Bar

5

1

0

4

4

9

1

7

Australia Bar & Grill

5

1

0

4

3

8

1

8

JT’s Bar

4

0

0

4

1

8

0

HASH HOUSE HARRIERS Run: 1392: 3:30pm November 10 Hares: Manneken Pis & Murkuary Directions: Make your way to the Honda garage on Chao Fa West and carry on south for another 4.3 km.

Turn right at the near edge of the PTT (HHH sign) and follow the directions.

More info: phuket-hhh.com

The latter round of the FIFA Futsal World Cup will be played at Huamark Indoor Stadium. played at an another indoor stadium in Bangkok, which is hosting group games.

Titleholders Brazil, who have scored 17 and conceded just one in two group matches

so far, and two-time former champions Spain are favourites to claim the title. AFP

The Phuket News

26 WORLD SPORT

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

PREMIER LEAGUE PREDICTIONS: ROUND 11

RVP scores first as Man U beat Arsenal

THIS YEAR’S GRAND PRIZE IS SPONSORED BY:

FOOTBALL

T

he Red Devils leapfrogged Chelsea in the English Premier League standings with a 2-1 win against Arsenal thanks to an early goal from Robin van Persie.

The former Gunner scored in just the third minute of the match, with Patrice Evra following up in the 67th minute.

Arsenal scored a consolation goal in the waning moments, but the damage was done and Man U made their opponents look like also-rans.

Meanwhile, new number two Chelsea was held to a 1-1 draw at Swansea thanks to an 88th minute goal by Pablo Hernandez. The draw capped a good week for Swansea, who would have drawn with Manchester City last Saturday if not for Carlos Tevez, and beat Liverpool on Wednesday in the FA Cup. Third place Manchester

JP’S TIPS ROUND 11 Arsenal v Fulham Everton v Sunderland Reading v Norwich City Southampton v Swansea Stoke Cty v QPR Tottenham v Wigan Aston Villa v Man Utd Man City v Tottenham Liverpool v Newcastle West Brom v Southamption

Win Win Draw Lose Draw Win Lose Win Lose Draw

MONTHLY STANDINGS

Manchester United players celebrate after van Persie’s goal in the third minute.

City also had a chance to jump Chelsea on the table, but West Ham had other ideas as the teams split points with a scoreless draw.

The top three teams are five points away from the rest of the table after round ten, with fourth place Everton holding

steady at 17 points. Still, their 2-2 draw with Fulham is less than what fans had hoped after a promising start to the season that had seen them climb as high as second spot.

Also with 17 points, West Brom beat up on last place Southampton with a 2-0 romp.

Peter Odemwingie scored in each half as they climbed to number five in the standings.

In The Phuket News tipping competition, ‘canarywill’ and ‘Tempestuous Strike’ lead the first November standings with 23 points each. In the overall standings,‘apollo 131’

1. canarywill 2. Tempestuous Strike 3. apollo131 4. MRB 5. s4599088 6. toptipster 7. A1CR 8. bazerb 9. Damian 10. jeltanic

THIS MONTH'S COMPETITION IS SUPPORTED BY:

OVERALL STANDINGS 23 23 20 20 20 20 17 17 17 17

is clearly ahead with 213 points, 14 ahead of second place ‘mickyleeds’.

However, this is a long season, and there is plenty of time left for others to take over the top spot. It’s never too late to enter, as you can still win monthly prizes.

1. apollo131 2. mickyleeds 3. toptipster 4. A1CR 5. Campanil 6. Russell 7. Blackrosebar 8. diggersd 9. Paul614724 10. bazerb

213 199 196 193 179 190 188 188 188 187

The winner of the October competition will win a B3,000 voucher to spend at Australian Bar & Grill in Kata. The overall winner at the end of the year will win a brand new Honda Scoopy courtesy of AP Honda.

Vettel could win F1 A winner and a scandal at Melbourne Cup title at US Grand Prix RACING FORMULA 1 SEBASTIAN VETTEL’S TENpoint lead is looking more impressive after he started in pole position and ended up with a third place finish at last week’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Now, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen have only two races to take the top spot in the biggest competition in motor sport. The US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas will take place on November 18, with the final race taking place in Brazil on November 25.

Sebastian Vette sits atop the F1 table with a 10-point lead.

Vettel could potentially clinch his third straight title in North America with a first place finish, depending on where Alonso places. The German has been on a tear lately, winning four races straight before the Abu Dhabi GP.

AUSTRALIAN-TRAINED Green Moon outbattled a strong foreign contingent to win the A$6 million (B200 million) Melbourne Cup at Flemington on Tuesday (November 5) amid the shadow of a betting scandal.

Ridden by Brett Prebble and trained by Robert Hickmott, Green Moon finished ahead of Fiorente, with Jakkalberry third in the 3,200-metre race.

Prebble flew in from Hong Kong to take the Cup mount and guided his horse to a length

Over 90 Cities, One Perfect Gateway.

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The Phuket News

Green Moon rose above the competition and won the Melbourne Cup last week. victory over another Australiantrained stayer, Fiorente, with a further one-and-a-quarter lengths to the Marco Bottitrained Jakkalberry.

Meanwhile, Australia’s leading jockey Damien Oliver has admitted to racing

authorities that he wagered A$10,000 on a rival horse in 2010, a report said.

Jockeys are forbidden from betting on any horse, while betting on a horse in the same race is one of the “gravest breaches” of Australian rac-

ing laws.

Publicly, Oliver has refused to deny placing the bet and reports said there are questions about why he has been allowed to continue riding, and why he has not been charged by stewards.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

WORLD SPORT 27

Mancini gives up hope after Ajax draw with City five points below second-place Real Madrid in Group D with only two points from four games, and although wins in their last two matches could take them through, Mancini feels it is too late.

“I don’t think we have a chance,” said the City coach, who went onto the pitch to confront referee Peter Rasmussen at the

FOOTBALL

R

oberto Mancini declared Manchester City’s Champions League campaign over after seeing his side held 2-2 by Ajax on a contentious evening at the Etihad Stadium.

Tuesday’s (November 6) result left the EPL champions

French Ligue 1

final whistle.

Mancini also dismissed reports he had threatened a television cameraman in the immediate aftermath of the match.

“The cameraman wanted to film me and follow me from the pitch,” said the Italian. “I said it’s finished. It’s not a film about me – it’s a game.”

The game left City on the

Italian Serie A

Team

MP W

D

L

F

A

Pts

1

PSG

11

6

4

1

17

7

22

1

2

Olympique Mars…

10

7

1

2

14

8

22

2

3

Olympique Lyonnais

10

6

3

1

19

10

21

Team

verge of elimination in the group phase for the second year in a row, and Mancini said his side had been made to pay for previous failings in the 3-2 loss at Real Madrid and the 3-1 defeat at Ajax.

City’s campaign will be over if they fail to win at home to Madrid in their next game on November 21. AFP

MP W

Juventus

D

L

11

9

1

Internazionale11

9

0

2

22

3

Napoli

11

7

2

Fiorentina

11

6

3

F

1

A Pts

23

8

28

10

27

22

2

16

7

23

2

16

8

21

Roberto Mancini’s squad will fight for UEFA Champion’s League survival against Real Madrid on November 18.

German Bundesliga Team

D

L

F

1

Bayern München

MP W 10

9

0

1

30

A Pts 4

27

2

Schalke 04

10

6

2

2

20

11

20

3

Eintracht Frankfurt

10

6

2

2

21

14

20

Bayer Leverkusen

10

5

3

2

18

14

18

4

Toulouse

11

5

4

2

18

11

19

4

5

Valenciennes

11

5

3

3

23

12

18

5

Lazio

11

6

1

4

16

15

19

4

8

18

6

Roma

11

5

2

4

26

20

17

5

Borussia Dortmund

10

4

4

2

20

11

16

Hannover 96

10

4

2

4

20

16

14 14

6

Saint-Étienne

11

5

3

3

19

7

Bordeaux

11

4

6

1

13

10

18

7

Catania

11

4

3

4

15

16

15

6

8

Lille

11

4

5

2

15

12

17

8

Atalanta

11

5

2

4

10

13

15

7

Werder Bremen

10

4

2

4

17

15

9

Rennes

11

5

1

5

13

14

16

9

Parma

11

4

3

4

14

16

15

8

Mainz 05

10

4

2

4

13

12

14

10

Reims

11

4

3

4

12

9

15

10

Udinese

11

3

5

3

14

16

14

9

Hamburger SV

10

4

1

5

11

14

13

11

Lorient

11

3

6

2

19

21

15

11

Milan

11

4

2

5

17

13

14

Cagliari

11

4

2

5

11

17

14

13

12

10

11

10

Stuttgar

10

3

4

3

10

15

11

Borussia M’gladbach

10

3

4

3

13

19

13

12

Freiburg

10

3

3

4

14

13

12

13

Hoffenheim

10

3

2

5

16

22

11

14

Nürnberg

10

3

2

5

8

15

11

15

Fortuna Düsseldorf

10

2

4

4

9

15

10

8

16

Wolfsburg

10

2

2

6

6

17

8

8

17

Greuther Fürth

10

1

4

5

7

16

7

6

18

Augsburg

10

1

3

6

5

15

6

12

Bastia

11

4

2

5

17

26

14

12

13

Brest

11

4

1

6

11

17

13

13

Torino

11

2

6

3

14

Montpellier

11

3

3

5

16

16

12

14

Pescara

11

3

2

6

8

17

11

15

Nice

11

2

6

3

15

17

12

15

Chievo

11

3

1

7

10

21

10

16

Ajaccio

11

3

4

4

10

15

11

16

Sampdoria

11

3

2

6

13

16

10

17

Evian TG

10

2

2

6

10

17

8

17

Genoa

11

2

3

6

10

15

9

18

Sochaux

10

2

1

7

9

17

7

18

Bologna

11

2

2

7

12

17

19

Troyes

11

1

4

6

11

20

7

19

20

Nancy

11

1

2

8

4

18

5

20

RESULTS Brest PSG Troyes Evian TG Nice

2 – 0 1 – 2 1 – 1 0 – 2 2 – 1

Lorient Saint-Étienne Montpellier Lille Nancy

Rennes Valenciennes Ajaccio Olympique Lyonnais Bordeaux

Live Sports TV Schedule START

END

SPORT

Reims Sochaux Olympique Marseille Bastia Toulouse

CHANNEL GUIDE

1XX- True Vision, 8XX - Astra; 8 - Setanta

*Times may be subject to change

CHANNEL

1 – 0 3 – 1 0 – 2 5 – 2 1 – 0

EVENT

TEAMS / INFO

Friday, November 9 816, 104

20:45

01:00

Tennis

ATP Tour

812, 109

12:00

17:00

Golf

Singapore Open

London, Round Robin

Day 2, Sentosa

Saturday, November 10 813, 108

18:50

21:30

Motor Bikes

MotoGP

Valenciana Qualifying

816, 104

20:45

01:00

Tennis

ATP Tour

London, Round Robin

812, 101 813 102

22:00 22:00 22:00

00:00

Soccer

00:00

Soccer

00:00

Soccer

EPL EPL EPL

Arsenal v. Fulham Everton v. Sunderland Southampton v.

Swansea

817

22:00

00:00

Soccer

EPL

Stoke v. QPR

817, 103

00:30

02:30

Soccer

EPL

Aston Villa v. Man United

107

21:25

23:30

Rugby Union

Autumn International

814

21:00

23:00

Rugby Union

French Top 14

812, 109

10:00

15:00

Golf

Singapore Open

England v. Fiji

Palermo

11

Siena

RESULTS Genoa Milan Juventus Pescara Bologna Catania

1

11 0 – 1 5 – 1 1 – 3 2 – 0 1 – 1 4 – 0

Fiorentina Chievo Internazionale Parma Udinese Lazio

5

3

5

3

9

5

Fiorentina Napoli Sampdoria Siena Roma

17

12

14

4 – 1 1 – 1 1 – 2 1 – 0 4 – 1

Cagliari Torino Atalanta Genoa Palermo

1 – 2 1 – 1 0 – 0 1 – 1 2 – 0

Bayer Leverkusen Greuther Fürth Stuttgart Freiburg Augsburg

Nürnberg Hoffenheim Hamburger SV Bayer Leverkusen Werder Bremen

1 – 0 3 – 2 0 – 3 3 – 2 2 – 1

Wolfsburg Schalke 04 Bayern München Fortuna Düsseldorf Mainz 05

Spanish Primera Liga

English Premier League Team

RESULTS Bayern München Eintracht Frankfurt Borussia Dortmund Borussia M’gladbach Hannover 96

MP

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

MP

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

1

Manchester United

10

8

0

2

26

14

24

1

Barcelona

10

9

1

0

32

12

28

2

Chelsea

10

7

2

1

22

10

23

2

Atlético Madrid

10

8

1

1

22

11

25

3

Manchester City

10

6

4

0

18

9

22

3

Real Madrid

10

6

2

2

25

7

20

4

Everton

10

4

5

1

19

13

17

4

Real Betis

10

6

1

3

17

15

19

5

West Brom

10

5

2

3

15

11

17

5

Málaga

10

5

3

2

14

7

18

6

Tottenham

10

5

2

3

17

14

17

6

Levante

10

5

2

3

12

14

17

7

Arsenal

10

4

3

3

15

8

15

7

Sevilla

10

4

3

3

12

11

15

8

Fulham

10

4

3

3

21

16

15

8

Real Valladolid

10

4

2

4

15

11

14

9

West Ham United

10

4

3

3

13

11

15

9

Valencia

10

4

2

4

13

12

14

10

Newcastle United

10

3

5

2

12

14

14

10

Getafe

10

4

1

5

12

16

13

11

Swansea

10

3

3

4

15

14

12

11

Rayo Vallecano

10

4

1

5

13

23

13

12

Liverpool

10

2

5

3

13

15

11

12

Real Zaragoza

10

4

0

6

9

15

12

13

Wigan

10

3

2

5

11

16

11

13

Mallorca

10

3

2

5

10

15

11

14

Norwich

10

2

4

4

8

18

10

14

Athletic Club

10

3

2

5

14

20

11

15

Stoke City

10

1

6

3

8

10

9

15

Celta de Vigo

10

3

1

6

11

14

10

16

Sunderland

9

1

6

2

6

9

9

16

Real Sociedad

10

3

1

6

10

15

10

17

Aston Villa

10

2

3

5

8

14

9

17

Granada

9

2

2

5

8

15

8

18

Reading

9

0

5

4

12

18

5

18

Espanyol

10

2

3

5

12

15

9

19

Queens Park Ranger

10

0

4

6

8

19

4

19

Granada

10

2

2

6

9

17

8

20

Southampton

10

1

1

8

14

28

4

20

Osasuna

10

1

2

7

8

15

5

RESULTS Manchester Utd Fulham Norwich Sunderland Swansea

2 – 1 2 – 2 1 – 0 0 – 1 1 – 1

Arsenal Everton Stoke Cty Aston Villa Chelsea

Tottenham West Ham Qpr Liverpool West Brom

0 – 1 0 – 0 1 – 1 1 – 1 2-0

Wigan Manchester Cty Reading Newcastle Utd Southampton

Team

RESULTS Málaga Barcelona Real Madrid Valencia Real Sociedad

1 – 2 Rayo 3 – 1 4 – 0 2 – 0 0 – 1

Vallecano Celta de Vigo Real Zaragoza Atlético Madrid Espanyol

Deportivo Osasuna Granada Sevilla Getafe

1 – 0 0 – 1 1 – 2 0 – 0 2-4

Mallorca Real Valladolid Athletic Club Levante Real Betis

Clermont v. Toulon Day 3, Sentosa

Sunday, November 11 813, 108

17:45

20:00

Motor Bikes

MotoGP

Grand Prix of Valenciana

812, 101

20:30

22:30

Soccer

EPL

Man City v. Tottenham

817, 101

23:00

01:00

Soccer

EPL

Chelsea v. Liverpool

816, 104

21:00

00:00

Tennis

ATP Tour

812, 109

10:00

15:00

Golf

Singapore Open

Paris, Semi Finals Day 4, Sentosa

The Phuket News

THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

Sport

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2012

Ready to bat Full team preview of the Jones Lang LaSalle Cricket League > 24

editor2@thephuketnews.com

Manchester United’s Mexican forward Javier Hernandez (C) tries to score past SC Braga’s goalkeeper Antonio Bastos “Beto” (L) and Brazilian defender Douglas Ferreira “Douglao” (R) during their match on November 7. Manchester United won the match 3-1. Photo: AFP

RULE BRITANNIA Week of glory for British sides in Champions League FOOTBALL

T

he Red Devils clinched a trip to the knockout stages after coming from behind and capped a brilliant week for British football in the Champions Leage that also saw Celtic put away Barcelona 2-1 .

United were down 1-0 early but came back with second half goals by Robin van Persie, Javier Hernandez, and a penalty from Wayne Rooney.

Manchester United reached the knockout stages on 12 points after four matches, while the loss for Braga

leaves them bottom on three points, one behind both Galatasaray and Cluj following the Turkish champions 3-1 win in Romania.

United now join former 2004 champions Porto and Spanish side Malaga in the knockout stages Playing at home, Scottish side Celtic took the lead with a header from Victor Wanyama in the first half and added a second when 18-year-old phenom Tony Watt smashed a shot in with eight minutes left.

Barcelona icon and Ballon D’or

candidate Lionel Messi scored a consolation goal in the waning moments of stoppage time, but it was too late for a comeback, prompting raucous celebrations at Parkhead.

“I said when I took the job that I wanted to bring the thunder back to the club, and I have never heard anything like that at the end of the match,” said Celtic manager Neil Lennon.

Another British winner of European club football’s premier competition – defending champions Chelsea – kept their hopes alive of avoiding the humiliation of becoming the first

GROUP B

GROUP A

champions to go out at the group stage with a last gasp 3-2 home win over talented Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk.

However, while they top the group on goal difference from Shakhtar, their fate probably hangs on their trip to Italian champions Juventus in a fortnight as the Italians are just a point behind them having demolished Nordsjaelland 4-0 in Turin – their first win in the competition.

Nordsjaelland failed to get a shot on goal even after Claudio Marchisio, Arturo Vidal and Sebastian Giovinco

GROUP C

had given the hosts a 3-0 first-half lead and were given little hope after Fabio Quagliarella made it 4-0 midway through the second half.

One of the biggest winners of the night were last season’s beaten finalists Bayern Munich who humiliated hapless French side Lille 6-1 with Peruvivan striker Claudio Pizarro scoring a hat-trick in the first-half.

Pizarro’s triple was the third fastest in Champions League history: the record belongs to Blackburn’s Mike Newell, who scored three in nine minutes in December 1995. AFP

GROUP D

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A Pts

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A Pts

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A Pts

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A Pts

Porto

4

3

1

0

6

2

10

Schalke 04

4

2

2

0

8

5

8

Málaga

4

3

1

0

8

1

10

Borussia Dortmund

4

2

2

0

6

4

8

PSG

4

3

0

1

10

2

9

Arsenal

4

2

1

1

7

6

7

Milan

4

1

2

1

4

4

5

Real Madrid

4

2

1

1

10

7

7

Dynamo Kyiv

4

1

1

2

5

7

4

Olympiakos Piraeus

4

2

0

2

7

7

6

Anderlecht

4

1

1

2

1

4

4

Ajax

4

1

1

2

6

8

4

Dinamo Zagreb

4

0

0

4

0

10

0

Montpellier

4

0

1

3

5

9

1

Zenit

4

1

0

3

3

7

3

Manchester City

4

0

2

2

6

9

2

GROUP F

GROUP E

GROUP G

GROUP H

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A Pts

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A Pts

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A Pts

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A Pts

Chelsea

4

2

1

1

10

6

7

Bayern München

4

3

0

1

10

5

9

Barcelona

4

3

0

1

8

5

9

Manchester United

4

4

0

0

9

4

12

Shakhtar Donetsk

4

2

1

1

7

5

7

Valencia

4

3

0

1

10

4

9

Celtic

4

2

1

1

6

5

7

Galatasaray

4

1

1

2

4

5

4

Juventus

4

1

3

0

8

4

6

BATE

4

2

0

2

8

9

6

Benfica

4

1

1

2

3

4

4

CFR Cluj

4

1

1

2

5

6

4

Nordsjælland

4

0

1

3

1

11

1

Lille

4

0

0

4

2

12

0

Spartak Moskva

4

1

0

3

6

9

3

Sporting Braga

4

1

0

3

5

8

3

The Phuket News